The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry | Goblinshead | A comprehensive guide to 4,100 castles, towers, historic houses, stately homes and family lands
The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry | Goblinshead | A comprehensive guide to 4,100 castles, towers, historic houses, stately homes and family lands
The Castles of Scotland
The Castles of Scotland 

Doune Castle

Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire, and used as Castle Leoch in the TV series Outlander.

View of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (© Martin Coventry)
Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (old postcard)

Stirling: About 0.25 miles south-east of Doune, on minor road south of the A820, just north of where the River Teith and the Ardoch Burn meet, at Doune Castle.


HES   NN 728011   OS: 57   FK16 6E

 

OPEN: Open all year: open Apr-Sep, daily 9.30-17.30; Oct-Mar, daily 10.00-16.00; closed 25/26 Dec and 1/2 Jan; last ticket 30 mins before closing. Shop. WC nearby. Exhibition and audio tour narrated by Monty Python's Terry Jones. Weddings.
Tel: 01786 841742   Web: www.historicenvironment.scot

View of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (© Martin Coventry)

Standing on a strong site in a lovely location above the River Teith, Doune Castle, built in the 14th century, consists of two strong towers linked by a lower range. These buildings form two sides of a courtyard, the other sides enclosed by a high curtain wall. Other ranges were planned to surround the whole courtyard, but were apparently never built. The curtain wall has open rounds at the corners, and corbelled-out semi-circular bartizans midway between the rounds. This was once a lordly residence and remains an impressive old stronghold, probably on the site of an older castle.

View of Doune Castle before restoration, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle, before restoration (old postcard)
Courtyard of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: courtyard, lord's tower to right, kitchen tower to left, great hall between (© Martin Coventry)
View from battlements of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: view from tower (old postcard)
Ground floor plan, Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: ground floor plan (MacGibbon and Ross)

The larger gatehouse, or lord’s tower, with the arched entrance or pend to the castle through the basement, is rectangular in plan, with a semi-circular tower projecting at one corner. It rises to five storeys and a gabled garret within a flush parapet. There are fine views from the top of the tower.

View of kitchen tower of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: kitchen tower (© Martin Coventry)

The smaller, or kitchen, tower rises to four storeys and a gabled garret, also within a flush parapet.

View of the lord's hall of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: lord's hall (© Martin Coventry)
First floor plan, Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: first floor plan (MacGibbon and Ross)

The lord’s tower has vaulted cellars, in the basement, and a fine vaulted hall on the first floor, reached by an external stone stair from the courtyard. The hall has a magnificent double fireplace and a minstrels' gallery as well as a carved oak screen. A stair, in the thickness of the walls, climbs to the storeys above, which contain many chambers, including the great chamber or upper hall on the second floor, which has been a magnificent room.

View of great chamber or upper hall of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: great chamber or upper hall (© Martin Coventry)
Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (Stobie, 1783)

The joining range contains  the great hall, and was also originally reached by a separate outside stair. This chamber has a magnificent roof and was also once a very grand chamber.

View of the great hall of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: great hall (© Martin Coventry)
View of a stair to the kitchen and great hall in the courtyard of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: stair to kitchen and great hall (© Martin Coventry)

The kitchen tower houses the kitchen on the first floor and has an enormous arched fireplace, an oven and drains with hatches through to an antechamber, and above this were more private chambers, a suite of which was used by Mary, Queen of Scots.

View of the kitchen with fireplace of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: kitchen with fireplace (© Martin Coventry)
View of chamber probably used by Mary Queen of Scots, Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: chamber, probably used by Mary Queen of Scots (© Martin Coventry)

A wall with a wallwalk and corbelled out bartizans and a turret completes the other sides of the courtyard, the wall opposite the entrance pierced by a series of windows. There may have been a further range of buildings against the courtyard walls, but it is not clear if these were ever built or if they were completely demolished.

View of the courtyard wall of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: courtyard wall (© Martin Coventry)
Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Done Castle (Rait, 1911)

The castle was built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, after he married Margaret Graham, Countess of Menteith, in 1361 and he built a residence to reflect his importance. Stewart virtually ruled Scotland during the reign of Robert III and the imprisonment in England of the young James  and he may have had a hand in the cpature of the young king. Albany became Governor and Guardian of Scotland.

View of the courtyard of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: view from the courtyard (old postcard)
Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (Billings)

When Albany died in 1420, his son, Murdoch, succeeded him as Regent and as Duke, but when James I was freed from England in 1424 and became ruler in his own right, he had Murdoch executed after imprisoning him in Caerlaverock Castle and then took Doune and made it a royal property.

Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: before restoration (MacGibbon and Ross)
View of reconstruction of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: reconstruction (MacGibbon and Ross)

Doune was kept as a royal hunting lodge, prison, and dower house for the widows of James III, James IV and James V. It was occasionally used by Mary, Queen of Scots, and was held by forces loyal to her until 1570. This is another castle where a ghostly apparition of Mary has been reported.

Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (© Martin Coventry)
Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Done Castle (Beattie, 1838)

The property passed to the Earls of Moray, and the Stuart Earls list their seat at Doune Park and also own Darnaway Castle in Moray, also having held Castle Stuart.

View of Doune Castle before restoration, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle, before restoration (Stobie)
Courtyard, Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Done Castle: courtyard, before restoration (Billings)

Doune was occupied by the Marquis of Montrose in 1645, and by Government troops during the Jacobite Risings of 1689 and 1715. It was taken by Jacobites in 1745, and used as a prison, although many of the prisoners escaped. It was restored in the late 19th century by the then Earl of Moray, although the ‘mortar’ used has subsequently all had to be removed.

Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (old postcard)
View of gargoyle on wall of great hall of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: great hall, gargoyle (© Martin Coventry)

The castle was used as a location for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the 1997 film Ivanhoe, and more recently as Winterfell in Game of Thrones and in the TV series Outlander, where it is Castle Leoch, in the book the home of Clan Mackenzie. The castle was also used as a location in the Netflix movie Outlaw King, about Robert the Bruce.

View of Doune Castle before restoration, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: before restoration (MacGibbon and Ross)

The ballad ‘The Bonnie Earl o’ Murray’ tells the tale of the murder of the Earl of Moray, at Donibristle, by the Gordon Earl of Huntly during a feud, and has the last verse:
  ‘O lang will his Lady.
  Look owre the Castle Doune.
  Ere she see the Earl o’ Moray
  Come sounding through the toun.’

View of Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle (old postcard)
View of the River Teith near Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: River Teith (© Martin Coventry)

There is a pleasant walk along the banks of the River Teith and to the village of Doune.

View of the River Teith and Doune Castle, a magnificent medieval castle in a pretty spot by the River Teith, built by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, near Doune in Stirlingshire. Doune Castle: River Teith (old postcard)

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