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The site of the fortalice or castle at Black Jack is a spectacular one with steep to sheer cliffs on three sides and a narrow isthmus of land on the other. Certainly, it was an excellent, defensive site and it was chosen as a stronghold that reason. The wider name of the area, Dunninald, is derived from the Gaelic and could be translated as Castle on High. However, the origin of the name Black Jack is no longer known but plausibly it may have come from a medieval lord of whom no records survive.
The third Andrew Gray of Black Jack is remembered for his attacks on Red Castle which lay at a distance of just over 3km in a south westerly direction across the waters of Lunan Bay. Red Castle can be easily seen from Black Jack In the 1570’s, Lady Innermeath, born Elizabeth Beaton of Creich, was resident at Red Castle. Partly due to her good looks, she had been a favourite of King James V and she bore the king a daughter who became the Countess of Argyll. Elizabeth married Lord Innermeath, an older man with whom she went on to have at least eight children. After he had died, she said that she felt the need, “for a younger gentleman, in the hope that he would maintain her, defend and do the duty of a faithful husband to her in her age.” In the event, she married James Gray, a landless toy boy. When Lady Elizabeth’s niece, Isobel Beaton, came to stay, James Gray and Isobel committed incest which resulted in the birth of a child. When Lady Elizabeth turned her husband out of Red Castle, he went to the second Andrew Gray of Black Jack and his son the third Andrew Gray for help.
James Gray claimed that as he was Lady Elizabeth’s husband, he was the rightful owner of Red Castle. Aided by his cousin from Black Jack and armed with “swords, daggers, guns, lances, axes, bows, arrows and other warlike instruments,” he laid siege to Redcastle from the 27th Februsary to the 2nd March 1579. By seeking the protection of the King, James Rex commissioned his , “richt traist friend,” John Erskine of Dun to “redd the quarrel”. With orders from the Privy Council in Stirling, John Erskin and a force of baillies and burghers from Dundee lifted the siege. James Gray was divorced for adultery and outlawed for incest. After a period of quiet, Andrew Gray again resumed with “dinging doun” Red Castle with a force of some sixty men. This time he killed defenders and took prisoners before looting the castle and setting fire to the lower rooms.
Today, little remains of Black Jack. Black Jack has been eroded by the combined effects of natural and human forces to the point where there is nothing visible except some of the foundations where the fortalice stood. Red Castle, too, is but a ruin and much reduced in size from its former glory. Given that climate change is predicted to raise sea levels, the question arises as to what extent ancient structures on the coast should be protected. This is an open question and the subject of debate.
The bay and beach at Black Jack is a most productive one for agates and jaspers. Most agates are more easily found on the pebble beach though some are found “in situ” in the surrounding amygdaloidal and volcanic rocks. The beach at Black Jack is the original location for the self-coloured chalcedony varieties known as boddinite and diackethyst. The first named specimens of these were found in the 1960’s and later described in published articles. Boddinite is a sea green, translucent chalcedony while diackethyst is also a translucent chalcedony but is amethystine in colour. Boddinite and lunanite take their names from local place names while diackethyst takes its name from the family name of the Rev William M. Diack M.A., minister of Craig Parish into his 28th year and of his son who discovered and named it. A yellow chalcedony called lunanite can also be found at Black Jack but is more commonly found in the chequered patches of shingle on the sandy part of Lunan Bay nearer Red Castle. A discussion point relating to the number and diversity of gems at Black Jack is to what extent the removal of specimen stones is harmful given that they will be ground into fragments by sea rolling of shingle if not removed.
Adrian L Diack, M.A.