Castle Menzies

Castle Menzies stands near the village of Weem, west of Aberfeldy in highland Perthshire, and served for centuries as the ancestral seat of the Clan Menzies and the Menzies baronets. Raised in the sixteenth century, it takes the Z-plan form, with two towers set at opposite corners of a central block to cover every wall with fire. Its walls are of random rubble, once roughcast, while the quoins, turrets and window surrounds were worked in finely carved blue freestone. A marriage stone recalls the 1371 union of James Menzies and Barbara Stewart. In 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie lodged here for two nights as he marched towards Culloden. Nearly a century later, in 1840, the architect William Burn added an entirely new wing, built with stone from a quarry by Loch Tay. From 1855 to 1858 the exiled maharajah Duleep Singh lived at the castle, and in 1878 a fire damaged the roof. The estate was sold in 1918 for £69,000 to Francis Willey. After years of decline the Menzies Clan Society took the building in hand, beginning restoration in earnest from 1972; it was designated a Category A listed building in 1971 and now opens to visitors.