From the dawn of time, man's inability to live with his neighbour has driven him to build defensive structures.
Nowhere in the world is this more apparent than in Scotland,
where the landscape is covered with buildings that tell tales of treachery, romance, war and peace.
From the earliest times, kings, queens, clan chiefs, landowners and governments have built, remodelled, changed and replaced castles, as circumstance and fashion have dictated.
This series will explore the buildings that have witnessed and played such an important part in Scotland's history.
Calaver Castle stands guard over the Solway Firth, close to the border with England, and for 400 years was the centre of conflict.
It is everyone's idea of what a real castle should look like, with moat, high walls, towers, portcullis and drawbridge.
It was destroyed in the 17th century by the Covenants.
Set in the heart of Scotland's capital, Edinburgh Castle sits high on a craggy rock.
It is now the most important historic building in Scotland.
Fortress, armoury and palace.
It is the repository of the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Scottish National War Memorial.
Castle Leven on the Clyde Coast.
It is hard to believe that such a pleasant home once had an unsavoury owner.
Marion Montgomery was infamous for her harsh and cruel treatment of her tenants, even resorting to murder when it suited her.
James V's wife, Mary of Guise, had her placed under house arrest here.
Glams Castle, made famous by Shakespeare and Macbeth, and now better known as the childhood home of Our Majesty the Queen Mother.
It was once the King of Scots hunting lodge.
These barracks at Riven were built to quell Jacobite uprisings.
Artillery firepower in the 17th century saw the castle change into a lower structure.
Fort George, near Inverness, is one of the most outstanding artillery fortifications in the world.
Built by a frightened Hanoverian government soon after the Jacobite uprising of 1745, it was intended as an impregnable fortress for German Geordie's army.
Built at a cost of more than £200,000, double the original estimate, it cost more than Scotland's gross annual product at the time, over £1 billion at today's prices.
No shot has ever been fired in anger over its walls.
Killane Castle on the Ayrshire coast.
Over a period of 15 years, Robert Adam converted a medieval Scottish tour house into a magnificent Georgian stately home, complete with gardens, farm and brewery.
Adam's final masterpiece sits romantically on a cliff top, overlooking the Firth of Clyde.
Kinloch Castle on the Hebridean island of Rom.
Built as holiday home by one of the world's wealthiest men, it is a snapshot of Edwardian life perfectly captured.
It remains untouched, just as the family left it in the 1920s.
Stirling Castle, set at the heart of Scotland.
Standing guard over the principal east-west and north-south routes across the country, gave Stirling its unique strategic importance.
On a good day, you can see four battle sites from the castle walls.
A fortress that became a royal palace and then a fortress once again.
Whoever controlled Stirling Castle, controlled Scotland.
Throughout the wars of independence with England, this great castle played the prime strategic role.
In 1295, the English demanded Scottish support in their war with France.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Scots entered into a treaty with the French against the English.
Causing Edward, the hammer of the Scots, to march north where he found Stirling Castle with its gates open, abandoned, save the gatekeeper.
William Wallace, guardian of Scotland, drew up his troops on the Abbey Craig, the hill where his monument now stands.
The English force under John de Warren, the Earl of Surrey, incompetently attacked the Scots by crossing a wooden bridge, so narrow that columns of only two horsemen abreast could cross it.
That bridge stood not far from this stone one.
The English army was soon cut down, but three of the commanders fought their way back to the castle, but were soon starved into surrender.
Later in 1313, the castle's promised surrender became the particular cause of the Battle of Bannockburn, where King Robert the Bruce sent proud Edward's army homeward to think again.
Robert's younger brother Edward had besieged the castle and had curiously agreed with its commander to withdraw his soldiers on the condition that the castle would be surrendered if the English army failed to relieve it by Midsummer's Day 1314.
The battle was a decisive victory for Bruce, who then gave orders to destroy the defences of Stirling Castle, so that it could not be used against them again.
Today the castle shows a continuity of military architecture over many centuries, since its first stone walls were built so long ago.
The outer defences were built by Queen Anne in the early 18th century and were designed for defence against rifle and artillery fire.
Entrance is across a drawbridge over a ditch running the entire length of a battle-minted wall.
There are two entry boxes and a projecting French spar battery, built to provide covering fire for the bridge and gate.
Now Esplanade became a parade ground and what was once the killing ground between fortress and town.
We pass through the Newport into Gardroom Square and onwards under the Queen Anne battery to the 16th century forework.
Before the 17th century the towers were a story higher, the roofs were from a fairytale castle and there were four of them at that.
Cromwell's General Monk had them cut down in 1651.
The foundations of the two demolished towers can still be seen.
Beyond lies the lower square dominated by James V's splendid Renaissance Palace of 1540 and the Great Hall.
These two buildings are the finest of their period in Scotland.
These buildings convey the atmosphere of the great days of the Scottish court.
They are in either south or north the west of the wind terminal.
The palace itself is a three-story building, surrounding a central courtyard, which was
known as the Lion's Den.
The orderly and symmetrical façades are typical of the period, and are lavishly adorned with
carvings, niche, and statues.
Even the King himself is here, in highland dress, a reference to his habit of roaming
the kingdom in disguise as the good man of Balenguich.
His French queen, Mary of Guise, is thought to have brought over the French masons whose
handiwork we see.
This is the Lion's Den, so called perhaps because of all the heraldic devices which
would have been here, or because James Pet Lion was kept here.
Some idea of the former grandeur of the royal apartments can be gleaned from the size of
the remaining fireplaces.
In 1452, James II murdered the Earl of Douglas, and had his body thrown out of the window
here.
Across the courtyard is the chapel royal.
In 1594, James VI commissioned it for the christening of his son, Prince Henry, on whom
all of Scotland's hopes lay, but he died just 23.
The King had to pay the masons a hefty bonus to ensure the building was completed in time,
suggesting that some things never change.
Again the building is typical of the Renaissance, with three pairs of arched windows on either
side of a doorway, which tries hard to look like a triumphal arch.
After the union of the crowns, the chapel was converted to barracks accommodation and
much debased.
It wasn't until the 1930s, when inserted floors and walls were removed, that these fragments
of paintings by Valentin Jenkin were exposed.
Thank you for watching.
The Great Hall was the hub of palace life,
and like the chapel royal, it too became a barracks,
but is now being restored to its former glory.
A great hammer beam roof like this one at Edinburgh is being rebuilt.
This is the old gateway to the highlands.
Stirling remains one of the finest of Scotland's castles.
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5E Castle in Aberdeenshire.
Once part of a chain of royal fortresses,
5E is now one of Scotland's most important historic buildings.
William the Lion was here in 1211,
Alexander II granted a charter here 11 years later,
and Robert the Bruce dispensed justice in the nearby woods.
Much changed over the centuries,
it stands today as one of the finest examples of Scottish baronial architecture.
Torx heads, coats of arms, and huntsmen are all elements of its 16th century glory.
These carvings tell of the families who once lived here.
In 1596, the castle passed to Alexander Seaton,
who had become Chancellor of Scotland,
and much of what we see today is his work.
This entrance hall was created in the early part of the 19th century,
when the castle was owned by the Gordon family,
The plaster panel depicts the Battle of Otterbonn in 1388,
when one of 5E's owners, Sir Henry Seaton,
captured Ralph de Persie, an English knight.
The decoration of the dining room dates from 1890.
Many of the paintings are by Sir Henry Rabon.
The table is set with a French glass table service, set in parcel gilt.
The glassware was bought to celebrate the 1921 Golden Wedding of Lady Leith
and her husband Lord Leith,
who had made his fortune in steel manufacture in the United States.
Lord Leith added this heraldic ceiling to the drawing room.
The room itself was created in the 1790s.
Dominating the drawing room is this portrait by Pompeo Battone.
General Gordon, who defended the House of Commons and the Gordon Riots,
stands before the ruins of ancient Rome,
whilst Roma hands him the orb of authority.
This is Susanna Archer, Countess of Oxford, by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
The fireplace is a real gem.
King Alfonso of Spain honeymooned for three days here in 1906
with Queen Victoria Eugenie.
The King was displeased that his bride wished to dance in public.
The great wheel stair with its ten feet wide steps
was built at the end of the 16th century by Alexander Seaton.
Legend has it that the Gordons rode their horses up here for a wager.
Lit by a George III chandelier,
the morning room has this Brussels tenier's tapestry of a fish market.
It is almost 300 years old.
This room was once the castle's great hall.
The stairs lead to the Douglas Room,
where one of the Laird's wives was imprisoned and starved to death.
Her kinsmen tried to rescue her, but were killed.
Legend has it that this is their blood.
Their bodies were thrown from the window.
One of Lord Leith's many additions is the Leith Tower, built in 1900.
Clearly, he had had enough of travelling.
It is one of the finest Edwardian interiors anywhere in Britain.
The self-playing organ cost £1400 and a further £55 for its oak screen.
This room was once the castle's great hall.
It is almost 300 years old.
Legend has it that the Gordons rode their horses up here for a wager.
Lit by a George III chandelier,
the Gordons rode their horses up here for a wager.
The stained glass tells of all the families who have had a connection with Phoebe.
The table lamp is by Louis Tiffany, the New York designer.
The white dogwood flower is the emblem of Missouri, Lady Leith's home state.
The rest of the carvings and columns were taken from more than one Dutch choch.
This room is by Louis Tiffany, Lady Leith's home state.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens designed the cartoon for these tapestries,
which tell the story of Decius Moose, three consuls, a father, son and grandson,
all of the same name, who in separate wars died fighting for Rome.
Another splendid fireplace, this time rich in Renaissance detail.
The tiles look Persian, but are actually Dutch.
In 1984, Lord Leith's grandson sold Phoebe Castle
and most of its contents to the National Trust for Scotland.
Castle Fraser, near the River Don.
Castle Fraser is one of the grandest of the Scottish tower houses.
Built of local granite, it stands like an enormous piece of sculpture.
Built between 1575 and 1635, it has all the classic details of Scottish baronial architecture.
Every view is different.
The turrets and dormers adorn the upper stories, and it has something of the air of a French chateau.
This is the Great Hall, recently restored from its use as a Victorian parlour.
This room would have been the centre point of castle life.
And this would have been the castle's main entrance.
At the eastern end of the hall is this enormous fireplace.
The hard nature of the stone and the distance from Scotland to the fashionable sculptures of Renaissance Italy
has resulted in these rather naïve, ionic capitals.
These iron hinges would have once hung Castle Fraser's wooden doors.
On the ground floor of the 16th century Michael Tower is the kitchen with its stone vaults and massive fireplace.
This great arch supports the weight of the chimney above.
Even this room was used for defence, with gun loops under the windows.
The landscape around Castle Fraser was planned in prosperous times during the 17th century
and the walled garden has now been restored to its appearance a century ago.
This is the dining room.
The Victorian table is laid with glass in china, belonging to the Frasers and Mackenzies who once lived here.
A magnificent mirror of the 18th century.
A French gilt clock made in 1830.
This is the dining room.
This bedroom is known as the worked room because of the embroidered bed hangings.
The door frame is mock Jacobean.
This square piano is similar to ones known to have been here in the 19th century.
The library was designed by the Amadine architect John Smith, known as Tudor Johnny in 1839. The bookcases and even the wallpaper are original.
A portrait by Rabon of Colonel Charles Fraser. He lost a leg at the siege of Burgos during the Napoleonic Wars.
This is his wooden one, articulated and in its traveling case.
Earlier that day, he had his skull fractured by a musket ball. And here is the hole in his hat.
He later became a member of parliament.
Thank you for watching.