The essential guide to Scotland's castles
This is a really good list of our castles, of course
- we can build a tour around any of these, simply
let us know, we will do the rest.
HUMANS have lived in
Scotland for 11,000 years. For the first 8,000
years, they seemed able to live mostly in peace.
Then the climate cooled, and men were forced to
fight over the fast-diminishing good ground for
their survival. They littered the Highland glens and
Lowland valleys with huge hillforts. In the far
north and west, they built towering stone structures
we call brochs.
Then came the Roman
legionaries around AD78. They built forts and
marching camps - and the Antonine Wall, between the
Forth and the Clyde, Imperial Rome’s most northerly
frontier. No sooner had they gone than new invaders
appeared - Gaels from Ireland, Angles from England,
Vikings from Norway. Strong defences remained a
priority, and places with fort (Dunkeld, "fort of
the Caledonians") are reminders of those Dark Ages.
But none of these peoples built castles.
The castle emerged around 1000 with the rise of the
Normans on the continent of Europe. Their owners
ruled by giving vassals land in return for military
service – feudalism. The castle was the fortified
residence of a feudal baron. Norman mercenaries
fought for King Macbeth at Dunsinnane in 1054, but
they didn’t settle. In 1072, William the Conqueror
invaded Scotland but had to return south to quell
revolts in his new conquest, England. It wasn't
until early in the following century that the
Normans returned, this time by invitation, and
brought with them the castle.
Scotland (12th
century)
In 1093, King Malcolm III
was killed fighting the Normans in England. He was
the last great Celtic king of Scotland. His youngest
son, David I, became brother-in-law of Henry I, the
conqueror’s son, and over the course of the 12th
century, he and his successors transformed Scotland
into a feudal kingdom. Many
Norman knights settled in Scotland and brought with
them motte-and-bailey castles – timber structures
built on a mound of earth and surrounded by
formidable ditches, sometimes water-filled moats.
The motte itself was a high mound on which the lord
of the castle had his residence; it was also the
place of last resort in time of siege. Beside the
mound was the bailey, or service court, housing
ancillary buildings such as the great hall, chapel,
kitchens and stables. There are over 300 of these
known in Scotland. Not all
castles were built on new sites. Some important
royal castles, including Edinburgh, were built on
formidable rock outcrops inhabited since the Bronze
Age 2000 years earlier.
In
1098, Alexander I, the elder brother of David I,
ceded the Northern and Western Isles and vast
swathes of the north and west mainland to Norway.
The Norsemen also built castles in Scotland.
12th-century
castles worth a visit
• Castle Sween,
Argyll (Historic Scotland) - Sven the Red's castle,
built circa 1200, is Scotland’s oldest standing
castle.
• Cubbie Roo's
Castle, Orkney (HS) - Scotland's oldest dateable
stone castle, built circa 1145 by Kolbein Hruga
("Cubbie Roo"), a Norseman.
• Duffus Castle,
Moray (HS) - the best preserved motte-and-bailey
castle in northern Scotland, built by the founder of
the House of Moray.
• Edinburgh Castle
(HS) - 1000 years of Scottish military history are
encapsulated in this spectacular location at the
heart of Scotland’s capital.
• Mote of Urr,
Galloway (Privately owned) - the best preserved
motte-and-bailey castle in all Scotland, built by
Walter de Berkeley, David I's chamberlain, circa
1150.
• Roxburgh Castle,
Scottish Borders (P) - this mighty castle, built to
protect Scotland’s second most important town after
Berwick, was probably the most fought over by Scots
and English.
• Stirling Castle
(HS) - simply awesome, and overlooking Scotland’s
most famous battlegrounds, Stirling Bridge (1297)
and Bannockburn (1314).
Scotland's Golden
Age (13th century)
In the 13th century,
Scotland and England generally lived in peace with
each other, leaving the Scots free to reclaim the
lands in the west lost to Norway. The nation
prospered under the long reigns of Alexander II and
Alexander III, and the landed aristocracy marked
that prosperity by replacing the old timber castles
with new and expensive stone versions.
Mighty nobles like
Walter de Moray, Lord of Bothwell, had huge
households numbering 200 or more that needed large
castles to accommodate them. They built impressive
curtain-walled castles, so-called because their
encircling walls were drawn around the castle
complex like curtains. Lofty towers, housing the
principal apartments, projected out from, and rose
high above, the curtain wall.
Not every mighty baron felt compelled to build a
great stone castle. King Robert I (Robert the Bruce)
spent his last four years beside the River Clyde,
not at the awesome fortress on Dumbarton Rock but in
a modest timber-built manor house on the opposite
bank of the River Leven.
13th-century
castles worth a • Balvenie Castle, Moray (HS) -
awesome Highland stronghold, associated with three
powerful dynasties: Comyns, Black Douglases and
Stewarts.
• Bothwell Castle,
Lanarkshire (HS) - the greatest castle the Middle
Ages has bequeathed to Scotland, despite countless
bloody sieges.
• Caerlaverock
Castle, Dumfries and Galloway (HS) - formidable
Maxwell stronghold famously besieged by Edward I of
England in 1300.
• Dirleton Castle,
East Lothian (HS) - a wonderful castle, inspired by
mighty Coucy-le-Chateau in northern France.
• Drum Castle,
Aberdeenshire (National Trust for Scotland) - one of
Scotland’s oldest surviving square keeps.
• Dunstaffnage
Castle, Argyll (HS) - this MacDougall stronghold is
typical of the castles built by the sons of mighty
Somerled, so-called King of the Isles.
• Kildrummy Castle,
Aberdeenshire (HS) - this imposing castle sheltered
Robert Bruce’s queen and daughter, before enduring a
great siege in 1306 in which his brother was
captured.
• Rothesay Castle,
Isle of Bute (HS) - Scotland’s only circular castle,
built by the Stewarts but fought over by Scots and
Norsemen alike.
The Wars of
Independence (14th century)
The invasion by Edward I
of England into Scotland in 1296 heralded a century
of warfare and bloodshed. Castles passed between the
warring parties like a bone between two dogs. Many
structures, including Bothwell Castle, were severely
damaged and had to be almost entirely rebuilt.
Others (such as Lanark Castle) were intentionally
destroyed on orders of Robert the Bruce so that they
could no longer be occupied by the enemy.
The conflict also saw the political map of Scotland
comprehensively redrawn. Established dynasties (the
Balliols and the Comyns, for example) were ousted by
families loyal to Bruce (including the Campbells and
the Douglases). These new lords rejected the great
curtain-walled castles, with the sole exception of
the Earl of Douglas at Tantallon. Instead, they
introduced the tower-house castle, centred on a
lofty stone tower. These had massively thick walls,
could be the equivalent in height of a 10-storey
block of flats and were usually rectangular on plan.
Many tower-house castles survive today as tower
houses only (Threave Castle for one). Don’t be
fooled into thinking that the tower was all there
was. Many other buildings – the great hall and
kitchens - were of wood and have long disappeared.
Only at a very few (such as Doune Castle) can the
full extent of these tower-house castles be
appreciated.
14th-century
castles worth a visit
• Cawdor Castle,
Nairn (HS) - simply one of the most magnificent
strongholds in all Scotland, dripping with history.
• Doune Castle,
Stirling (HS) - built by the Duke of Albany, known
as Scotland's "uncrowned king" because he
effectively ruled the country from 1386 to 1420, and
looking every inch a magnificent royal palace.
• Hermitage Castle,
Scottish Borders (HS) - a bleak Border fortress of
the Black Douglases located in Liddesdale, "the
bloodiest valley in Britain".
• Lochleven Castle,
Perth and Kinross (HS) - island fastness which was
Mary Queen of Scots’ prison in 1566-67, and from
whence she escaped.
• Neidpath Castle,
Scottish Borders (P) - an eye-catching lofty L-plan
tower house gracing the banks of the River Tweed.
• Spynie Palace,
Moray (HS) - the best-preserved medieval bishop’s
palace in Scotland has the country’s largest tower
house looming over all.
• Tantallon Castle,
East Lothian (HS) - last of the great curtain-walled
castles built in Scotland and absolutely awesome in
its cliff-top setting.
• Threave Castle,
Dumfries and Galloway (HS) - forbidding fastness of
Archibald "the Grim", where the final act in the
fall of the mighty Black Douglases took place in
1455.
Castles and
Cannons (15th century)
Throughout the 15th
century more and more landowners (lairds) were able
to afford to build a stone castle. The overthrow of
the over-mighty Black Douglases in 1455, for
example, resulted in many lesser lairds rising up
the property-owning ladder. Generally, they built
tower houses, not as big as the earlier ones, and
with thinner walls. A few of these structures
sprouted wings, called jambs, to house the main
stair mostly (Kilchurn Castle is a good example).
During the century,
guns began to rival more traditional weapons like
the trebuchet - generally used to break down walls -
and crossbow. Mons Meg, Europe's best-preserved
medieval siege gun - still proudly on display in
Edinburgh Castle - arrived in Scotland in 1457.
Castle builders had increasingly to take their
greater destructive power more fully into account -
generally by inserting gunholes in walls. There are
probably quite a few more 14th- and 15th-century
tower houses in existence than we realise, but they
lie hidden behind the grand extensions built by
later owners. Blair Castle and Glamis (pronounced
Glams) Castle are two examples.
15th-century
castles worth a visit
• Alloa Tower,
Clackmannanshire (P) - ancient residence of the
Erskine earls of Mar, with two stone vaults and
walls three metres thick.
• Borthwick Castle,
Midlothian (P) - perhaps Scotland’s most impressive
tower house, with a superb great hall and many
masons’ marks.
• Castle Campbell,
Clackmannanshire (HS) - this Lowland seat of the
Campbells of Argyll is dramatically sited between
the burns of Care and Sorrow.
• Craigmillar Castle,
Edinburgh (HS) - a fascinating complex of nooks and
crannies, where Lord Darnley’s murderers plotted his
end.
• Crichton Castle,
Midlothian (HS) - worth a visit just for the north
range’s diamond-faceted Italianate facade, but
there’s so much more besides.
• Dean Castle,
Ayrshire (Local Authority) - well restored
tower-house castle, now holding a remarkable
collection of armour and musical instruments.
• Huntly Castle,
Aberdeenshire (HS) - hugely impressive castle of the
Gordons, with a grim pit-prison beneath graceful
lordly apartments.
• Kilchurn Castle,
Argyll (HS) - this Campbell stronghold is one of
Scotland’s most photographed castles thanks to its
dramatic setting.
• Orchardton Tower,
Dumfries and Galloway (HS) - Scotland’s only
circular tower house, and so very prettily set.
• Smailholm Tower,
Scottish Borders (HS) - a prominent Border landmark,
where Walter Scott spent his childhood and fired his
imagination.
Garrisons and
Private Homes (16th & 17th century)
This was the time of the
Protestant Reformation (1560), when many former
tenants of the Church became landowners in their own
right. They took the dour Scottish tower house to
new heights of planning and design. They built not
only L-shaped ones, but E, T and Z-shaped structures
too. They considerably improved the interiors and
exercised remarkable ingenuity in their external
appearance.
This was also the
period in which the gun achieved outright
superiority as the weapon of war. Castles were
simply unable to respond, and a new form of defence
– the artillery fort (Eyemouth Castle) – was
conceived to garrison troops and defend the realm.
By the end of the 16th century, the medieval castle
had become little more than a private home.
Tower houses of the later 16th century were
fundamentally different from their predecessors.
Most were built by small-time lairds with few feudal
obligations, small estates and even smaller
households. No need for them to build large castles;
a simple tower housing most of their requirements -
kitchen, public room, private apartment - sufficed.
16th and 17th-century castles worth a visit
• Brodie Castle,
Moray (NTS) - a fine Z-plan tower house lurks behind
the alterations and extensions of later times.
• Carnasserie Castle,
Argyll (HS) - an excellent example of an integrated
great hall and tower, and so beautifully executed.
• Castle Fraser,
Aberdeenshire (NTS) - the finest 17th-century castle
in Scotland’s castle country, with a wonderfully
bold round tower.
• Castle Menzies,
Perth and Kinross (P) - an arresting sight by the
Tay, this fine Z-plan castle, with a later addition,
is now Clan Menzies’ home.
• Craigievar Castle,
Aberdeenshire (NTS) - one of Scotland’s finest tower
houses, with an amazing wallhead and sumptuous great
hall within.
• Craignethan Castle,
South Lanarkshire (HS) - the last great private
fastness built in Scotland (circa 1540), with
elaborate and unusual artillery defences.
• Crathes Castle,
Aberdeenshire (NTS) - a wonderful survival, with
fine interiors - including fascinating ceilings - to
match a beguiling exterior.
• Earl's Palace,
Kirkwall , Orkney (HS) - a stunning work of
architecture, built by the tyrant Earl Patrick
Stewart, executed with his son in 1615.
• Edzell Castle,
Angus (HS) - the highlight of the “Lichtsome
Lindsays” castle is its wonderful walled garden and
summer house, built in 1604.
• Eyemouth Fort,
Berwickshire (LA) - the first artillery fort built
in Britain (1547), and forerunner of the magnificent
Elizabethan walls of Berwick.
• Fyvie Castle,
Aberdeenshire (NTS) - the highlight of this splendid
castle is the monumental entrance facade, built by
King James VI’s chancellor.
• Kellie Castle ,
Fife (NTS) - painted and ornamental plaster ceilings
grace the interior of this fine E-plan tower house.
• MacLellan's Castle,
Dumfries and Galloway (HS) - a huge town house for a
humble provost of Kirkcudbright, with more than 15
private rooms.
• Noltland Castle,
Orkney (HS) - described as looking like “some
antique man o’ war” because it bristles with
gunholes, 70 in all.
• Tolquhon Castle,
Aberdeenshire (HS) - William Forbes’s 1580s
residence is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s
prettiest castles.
Romantic Castles
(18th - 21st centuries)
Scots have never ceased
their love affair with the castle. Despite the
passing of the medieval age, these ancient seats of
lordship have remained objects of compelling
interest in the dramatic Scottish landscape. This
"romantic" perception even led to quite a few being
restored, and an architectural style was evolved -
Scots Baronial - whose debt to the masons of
medieval times is self-evident.
Today, Scotland's castles – whether
ruined or restored – are hugely popular, and rightly
so. To visit a Scottish castle is to come
face-to-face with the country’s turbulent past.
Quite a few of our medieval castles are hidden
behind castellated (or turreted) architecture of a
post-medieval age (think Dunvegan Castle), and some
of our best-loved medieval castles aren't really
castles at all but great country seats (Culzean, for
example). One or two have been so comprehensively
restored (Eilean Donan) that hardly anything ancient
survives at all.
Romantic castles worth a visit
• Blair Castle, Perth
and Kinross (P) - the last castle in Britain to be
besieged (1746) is a splendid example of the Scots
Baronial style.
• Brodick Castle,
Isle of Arran (NTS) - a medieval seat of the
Hamiltons, wonderfully refashioned in Victorian
times.
• Culzean Castle,
Ayrshire (NTS) - a handsome country seat created by
Robert Adam (house) and Alexander Nasmyth
(landscape) 200 years ago.
• Dunvegan Castle,
Isle of Skye (P) - this Macleod seat, the oldest
inhabited castle in Scotland, is largely a creation
of the Victorian age.
• Eilean Donan
Castle, Highland (P) - the most photographed castle
in Scotland is largely a restoration of the early
20th century.
• Glamis Castle,
Angus (P) - the fictional home of Macbeth, but the
real home of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen
Mother - a joy to behold.
There are countless
numbers of ruins, fortifications, towers and walled
structures that comprise the broad definition of a
castle. They are all different in size, scope and
style – but they all share one common element. The
castles are about people who lived there, who
sometimes fought, and often died, there. They are
the very buildings that housed the living, breathing
and dying of Scots people. In
many ways, Scottish castles are a living museum – an
archive – of this country's history and heritage and
should be explored from top to bottom and coast to
coast.
TAKE A TOUR - LET
US DESIGN ONE JUST FOR YOU!
|
