The name Dundas comes from the
Gaelic dùn deas, meaning "south hill" or "pretty hill". In the 11th century, the lands of Dundas, along with other land in Lothian, were granted by
King Malcolm Canmore to paternal first cousin
Gospatrick, the earl of
Northumbria, who had come north to escape
William the Conqueror. The lands of Dundas passed to his great-grandson Waldeve, who granted them to his kinsman Helias in a charter dating from around 1180. Helias took his surname from his lands, becoming the first of the Dundas family. The Dundases and their cadets would later come to own much of Mid and West Lothian. In 1416, James Dundas obtained a licence from the
Duke of Albany (then the effective ruler of Scotland) to build a
keep. This keep was extended in 1436, making it into an
L-plan. The Keep served both as a home in times of peace and a fortress in times of war.
Regent Arran gave a tip to workmen building the "Place of Dundas" in July 1544. On 13 August 1553 in the great hall, James Dundas gave his infant daughters Elizabeth and Jane gifts of silver plate.
Oliver Cromwell is known to have stayed at Dundas Castle around the time of the
Battle of Dunbar in 1650. A statue of him remains standing outside the Keep. In 1818, James Dundas had the 17th-century portion of the building pulled down and rebuilt in a Tudor-Gothic style by the renowned architect
William Burn. It was again sold in 1899, when it was bought along with five farms and of agricultural land by Stewart Clark, the owner of a
Renfrewshire textile company and a respected philanthropist. Clark's son, John, took the double-barreled name "Stewart-Clark" in honour of his father, and was made a
baronet in 1918. During the Second World War, Dundas Castle served as the headquarters for protecting the
Forth Bridge. Since 1995, the castle's owner has been Sir Jack Stewart-Clark, the great-grandson of Stewart Clark. Sir Jack was a
Member of the European Parliament between 1979 and 1999. ==Facilities==