Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 36 on 14/12/2007.

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The world loves a thane

Charles Douglas visits Cawdor Castle in Nairn, magnificent home of the Thanes of Cawdor.

This castle has a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.” So wrote William Shakespeare in what has come to be known as The Scottish Play.

And what better promotional source could one have for a visitor attraction? In some ways, however, the overtly dramatised associations of Cawdor Castle with the 11th century Scottish king, Macbeth, have proved a mixed blessing for its owners over the centuries.

Shakespeare’s play, while resonating with intrigue and supernatural fantasy, is strictly fictional, and Cawdor Castle in itself has an equally compelling history.

The fortress we see today dates from the late 14th century, and built as for the hereditary thanes of Calder or Cawdor.

Spelling was never considered particularly important in those days.

The legend goes that the Thane of the period occupied a smaller castle nearby but, after a dream, decided that he needed a stronger stronghold to exercise his authority. Following the sequence of his dream, therefore, he loaded a coffer of gold onto the back of a donkey and released it, allowing it to wander around the locality. At the end of the day, wherever the beast lay down to rest was where the new castle was to be built and, according to the dream, the family would prosper thereafter. That night, the donkey took shelter under a thorn tree. The stump of this tree, although it has since been identified as holly not thorn, is incorporated to this day in the ground floor guardroom of the.....

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By Charles Douglas

Section : Scotland Houses

Page number : 14