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Issue 9 - Land of a thousand castles

History & Heritage

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Scotland Magazine Issue 9

Scotland Magazine Issue 9
July 2003

 

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Land of a thousand castles

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN HANNAVY

Land of a thousand castles (Issue 9)
Scotland, in the minds of most of us, is defined by its rugged mountains and lochs, and by its spectacular castles. Just how many of them there actually are, probably nobody knows – and few have to time to count them all.

After spending several decades photographing the well-known, and some of the less well-known, I realise that under Scotland’s ever-changing light and weather (four seasons in one day is something we all recognise and love), the power of these ancient buildings to impress and surprise is limitless.

In future issues of Scotland Magazine, it will be my pleasure to share just a few of Scotland’s magnificent castles with you.

We will explore some of the castles which guarded Scotland’s shores, some of the royal palaces and castles associated with Mary Queen of Scots, and some of the lesser-known island castles.

In this issue we have chosen four of the country’s most picturesque castles – Caerlaverock in the south-west, Kilchurn on an island in Loch Awe, Doune in Perthshire, and, perhaps the most instantly recognisable, Eilean Donan on the west coast, opposite the Isle of Skye.

DOUNE CASTLE has occupied a prominent position at the edge of the Perthshire village of the same name, overlooking the River Teith, for over 600 years, originally built for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and Regent of Scotland. The castle and its builder were at the heart of late 14th and early 15th Century Scottish history, and, in 1828, their stories were woven into The Fair Maid of Perth by Sir Walter Scott.

At the time of the 1745 uprising, Doune Castle was used as a Jacobite prison, and Scott again drew on its history, featuring it in Waverley in 1814, but surprisingly describing it as being on the south side of the Teith, rather than the north. Scott’s most successful epic poem, The Lady of the Lake, written in 1810, was also set in part at the Castle of Doune.

CAERLAVEROCK CASTLE, with its magnificent moated ruins south-east of Dumfries, dates back to the closing decades of the 13th century, and must rank as one of Scotland’s most spectacular ruins. It is the epitome of the mediæval fortress, albeit in miniature – for this is not a large castle.

It was one of the strongholds of the once powerful Maxwell family, and its triangular shape and deep moat are classic examples of 13th Century defensive designs. Additions in the 17th century reflect its role change from border fortress to country home.

The dramatic ruins of KILCHURN CASTLE sit on a rocky outcrop at the north-east end of Loch Awe, and are reached by an often wet and boggy causeway.

Even on a warm summer’s day, it is a cold and bleak place, but its location on the loch overlooked by towering mountains give it a breathtaking beauty.

It was last garrisoned during The ’45, and has been a ruin now for more than 200 years.

EILEAN DONAN CASTLE is probably the most recognisable castle in all of Scotland, yet what we see today is just over 70 years old!

A castle has stood here since the 13th century–the first was probably built by King Alexander II – and with rebuildings and enlargements, a castle stood there continuously until 1719 when Spanish troops sympathetic to the Jacobite cause occupied it.

That was when three warships reduced the site to rubble during that year’s failed Jacobite uprising. And so it stayed for over two centuries until the task of undertaking a complete rebuilding by George Mackie Watson was completed in 1932.