Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TANTALLON, prop. n. Also -an, Tamtallan. The name of a large castle, now ruinous, on the coast of East Lothian, once a stronghold of the Douglas family and proverbial for its massive impregnability. Hence to ding doun Tantallon, to perform the impossible, to go beyond all bounds in feats or conduct (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 190; Abd. 1933). For a legend about the origin of the saying see 1727 quot. Comb. Tantallon cake, a small tea-biscuit flavoured with lemon and cut with scalloped edges, phs. thought of as resembling the roundels and crenellations of Tantallon Castle (Edb. 1929 F. M. McNeill Sc. Kitchen 196).Sc. 1719 in Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 115:
[He] may as soon ding down Tamtallan As match wi' thee.Sc. 1727 D. Defoe Tour Gt. Britain III. 19:
The old, and odd Fancy among the Soldiers that the Drums beating the Scots March say, Ding down Tan-Tallon, That Beat or March being invented by King James the vth's Soldiers when they march'd against the Earl of Angus, who held out Tantallon Castle against the King.Ayr. 1791 Burns On Pastoral Poetry vi.:
The teeth o' time may gnaw Tantallan, But thou's for ever.Sc. 1885 F. H. Groome Gazetteer Scot. III. 428:
So strong was the castle in position, and so skilful in construction, that it was regarded as impregnable, insomuch that to “ding doun Tantallon” was thought the same kind of feat as to ‘mak a brig to the Bass.'