Doune Castle

Doune Castle stands where the Ardoch Burn joins the River Teith, some 13 kilometres north-west of Stirling. Its present form was built for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, the powerful son of King Robert II, between the late 14th and early 15th centuries; a charter was sealed here in 1381, when the work was at least partly complete. After the Duke’s death in 1420 the castle passed to his son Murdoch, who was executed in 1425, whereupon it reverted to the crown. For the following century it served as a royal retreat, hunting lodge and dower house for widowed queens. The building is dominated by a lofty gatehouse tower rising some 29 metres, containing the lord’s private chambers, alongside a great hall and a kitchen tower reckoned among the best-appointed of its date in Scotland. Thick curtain walls with a protected wall-walk enclose the courtyard. Mary, Queen of Scots stayed here, and during the Jacobite rising of 1745 government prisoners were held in the castle after the Battle of Falkirk. It later belonged to the Earls of Moray, passing into state care in 1984, and is now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland.