Berkeley family Constable (Alnod), a high official under King Edward the Confessor. Berkeley Castle, the "caput" of the barony, and the adjoining town of Berkeley are located in the county of Gloucestershire and are situated about five miles west of Dursley and eighteen miles southwest of Gloucester, and northeast of Bristol. The location has conferred various titles on the family over the centuries, including Baron Berkeley (barony by writ), Earl of Berkeley, and Marquess of Berkeley. Berkeley Castle was originally granted by William the Conqueror to the Norman Roger de Berkeley, feudal baron of Dursley, under the feudal tenure of fee-farm. However,
Hailes Castle the oldest constructions of its kind in Scotland. The superiority of the lands was held by the Earls of Dunbar and March. The de Gourlays, a Northumbrian family, supported the English in the Wars of Independence, and their land was forfeited by order of the Scottish Crown. Hailes Castle and lands were then confirmed upon another Northumbrian, Sir Adam de Hepburn (d. before 1371), who, in the reign of David II, had a charter of the lands of Traprain, and Southalls and Northalls (now united and called Hailes) in Haddingtonshire, as well as the lands of Mersingtoun, Cockburnspath, and Rollanstoun