A Brief History
The name Doune comes from the gaelic word ‘dun’, meaning fortified town. This site has been a defended settlement for at least two millenia. There are traces of prehistoric earthworks around the site and Roman foundations are to be found in the castle grounds . The Doune Castle that we see today was built as a hunting lodge for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, who was the Regent of Scotland from 1396-1420. Much of the castle has been restored in recent centuries and despite a slightly eccentric mix of styles, it has been unchanged for almost three hundred years.
Albany died in 1420, and his son, Murdoch, inherited the castle but was put to death with his two sons five years later by James I under charges of treason. Doune Castle was then held by the Crown, being used by the King as Royal retreat and dower house.
After the return of Mary Queen of Scots in 1561 the castle was gifted to James Stewart, her half brother.
James became her chief adviser, and was created Earl of Moray by her the following year. In 1562 he defeated a rebellion by George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, at the Battle of Corrichie near Aberdeen. About this time Moray married Anne (d. 1583), daughter of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal.
After Moray opposed Mary's marriage to Lord Darnley in 1565, he embarked upon the unsuccessful 'Chaseabout Raid', together with the Earl of Argyll, and the Hamiltons. He was subsequently declared an outlaw and took refuge in England. Returning to Scotland after the murder of David Rizzio, he was pardoned by the Queen. He contrived, however, to be away at the time of Darnley's assassination, and avoided the tangles of the marriage with Bothwell by going to France. After the abdication of Queen Mary at Loch Leven, in July 1567, he was appointed regent of Scotland. When Mary escaped from Loch Leven (May 2, 1568), the Duke of Chatelherault and other nobles rallied to her standard, but Moray gathered his allies and defeated her forces at the Battle of Langside, near Glasgow (May 13, 1568), and compelled her to flee to England. For this and the subsequent management of the kingdom he secured both civil and ecclesiastical peace, and earned the title of "The Good Regent."
Moray was assassinated in Linlithgow in January 1570 by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a supporter of Mary and Doune was held for the exiled Mary, Queen of Scots.
King James VI visited Doune on occasion, and in 1581 authorised £300 to be spent on repairs and improvements, the works being carried out by the master mason Michael Ewing. In 1593, a plot against James was discovered, and the King surprised the conspirators, who included the Earls of Montrose and Gowrie, at Doune Castle.
Although still the legal property of the Earls of Moray, the castle was more often occupied by outside forces. Royalist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose held Doune Castle in 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In 1654, during Glencairn's rising against the occupation by Oliver Cromwell, a skirmish took place at Doune between Royalist and Cromwellian troops. The castle was garrisoned by government troops during the Jacobite Rising of Bonnie Dundee in 1689 and again during the rising of 1715. During the Jacobite Rising of 1745, Doune Castle was occupied by Charles Edward Stuart. It was subsequently used as a prison for government troops captured at the Battle of Falkirk. Several prisoners escaped by knotting bedsheets and climbing from the window. Escapees included the author John Home, and the minister, John Witherspoon, who later became a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence.
The rough usage of the castle meant that it was roofless by 1800. It was restored later in the century by George Stuart, 14th Earl of Moray (1816–1895). The timber roofs were replaced, and the interiors, including the panelling in the Lord's Hall, were re-installed.
The building is an irregularly shaped pentagon made up of a main tower, a wing and a courtyard. The upper levels were secure private residences, and the Lord's Hall was a tremendous vaulted room. The front of the castle is a thick-walled rectangular block. The East has a gatehouse tower, which is an impressive 95' tall and probably was taller at one time. The entrance passes through the rectangle at a slant, and is protected by arrow loops and, at one time a portcullis.
Doune Castle has featured in several literary works, including the 17th-century ballad, "The Bonny Earl of Murray", which relates the murder of James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray, by the Earl of Huntly, in 1592. In Sir Walter Scott's first novel, Waverley (1814), the protagonist Edward Waverley is brought to Doune Castle by the Jacobites. Scott's romantic novel describes the "gloomy yet picturesque structure", with its "half-ruined turrets"
The castle was donated to Historic Scotland by Douglas Stuart, 20th Earl of Moray, in 1984.
Visiting
Doune is open to the public and is run by Historic Scotland. It is regularly visited by film fans as Doune is perhaps best known as the castle in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie.
www.historic-scotland.gov.uk