Eilean Dornan Castle, on the road to Skye.
Eilean Dornan stands on a small islet at the meeting point of three sea lochs.
Lough Alch, Lough Long, and Lough Dooch.
Facing the Isle of Skye and Scotland's western seaboard,
it was once held as a fortress against Viking raiders,
a stronghold for the Mackenzies and the McCrays.
The castle takes its name from the 7th century saint, St. Dornan,
who lived in Ireland while spreading Christianity.
On the 10th of May, 1719, during a Jacobite uprising,
William Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Seaforth,
had Eilean Dornan garrisoned by 48 Spanish troops
when it was bombarded by the English warships Worcester, Enterprise, and Flamborough.
It was almost totally destroyed.
It remained a neglected ruin for almost 200 years,
until the energies of one man, Lieutenant Colonel John McCray Gilstrap,
returned the ruins to their former glory.
The castle is now the seat of the Clan McCray.
This iron yet was recovered from the well during restoration.
Legend has it that the McCrays, returning from battle,
would hold their captive prisoner and these battlements for a few days
before throwing them into the waters of the loch below.
If any of them survived and made the shore, then they would be set free.
In 1331, Robert the Bruce's nephew, Randolph,
Earl of Moray, and Warden of Scotland,
was to execute 50 local men over a territorial dispute
and decorated the walls with their heads as a warning to others.
The Gallic inscription above the door reads,
As long as there is a McCray inside, there will never be a Fraser outside.
From here, molten lead could be poured on the heads of attackers.
Aileen Donan must be one of the most photogenic castles in Scotland.
Although largely a 20th century reconstruction,
it is authentic in every detail.
Few other castles can have such a magnificent setting.
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The billeting room has walls 14 feet thick and a ceiling 2.5 feet thick at the centre.
Upstairs is the banqueting hall with its heavy oak-beamed ceiling.
The dining table centrepiece is this rare cutlery vase.
The fireplace beyond is carved with the family's arms and the line rampant of Scotland.
Robert de Bruce was once given refuge here.
On the walls are paintings of former generations of the Macraes.
This font was used for baptisms.
The bedrooms are in the garret above the battlements and continue the heraldic theme.
From its early beginnings in the 13th century through wars and uprisings, Eilindonan Castle
stands today as a potent reminder of Scotland's past.
Calaverc Castle, sentry to Scotland.
Calaverc 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.
Translated from the original French, a contemporary account of the angry siege of 1300 gives us
some idea of Calaverc's former strength.
Calaverc was so strong a castle that it feared no siege before the king came there, for it
would never have to surrender provided that it was well supplied when the need arose with
men, engines and provisions.
In shape it was like a shield, for it had but three sides rounded, with a tower at each
corner, but one of them was a double one, so high, so long and so wide that the gate
was underneath it, well made and strong, with a drawbridge and a sufficiency of other defences.
And it had good walls, and good ditches filled right up to the brim with water.
And I think you will never see a more finely situated castle, for on one side can be seen
the Irish sea, towards the west and to the north the fair moorland, surrounded by an
arm of the sea, so that no creature born can approach it on two sides without putting himself
in danger of the sea.
On the south side it is not so easy, for there are many places difficult to get through because
of woods and marshes and ditches, hollowed out by the sea where it meets the river.
After Edward I of England's invasion of Scotland, Calaverick became a prime target.
Edward's army of 87 knights and 3,000 men set up camp outside the walls with siege engines.
Before long the tiny garrison of 60 men surrendered, some were hanged from the castle walls.
For the next 12 years Calaverick was on the English side, merely by changing his allegiance,
so Eustace Maxwell kept his castle.
Edward wrote off Sir Eustace's debt of 22 pounds, and almost immediately Sir Eustace
threw in his lot with Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.
There was another siege, but this time the castle held out, but eventually Bruce had
it demolished, so that it couldn't be held against him again.
It was rebuilt a few years later, when the Maxwells changed sides again.
The building we see today has stonewalked from every age, from the 13th to the 17th
century.
The central courtyard would have been the hub of castle life.
But first Earl of Knitsdale, in 1634, decided to build himself a modern house within the
castle.
It is one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture in Scotland, the very height
of fashion and taste.
It is even a triumphal arch, and the carvings show the Maxwell family arms and scenes from
classical mythology.
It is as fine as any Italian palazzo.
Just a few years after its completion, it was destroyed during yet another siege, this
time by Covenanters against Charles I.
Could the elaborately carved fireplaces give a clue to the grandeur that was once inside?
In the summer of 1640, the Earl of Knitsdale and 200 men held Lieutenant-Colonel John Hume's
army at bay for 13 weeks, but eventually surrendered.
An inventory taken at the time of the surrender, lists among the furnishings, five beds each
with curtains, decorated with silk lace and fringes, matching stools and chairs, ten lesser
beds and twenty servants beds.
There was a library of books and kists full of sheets, pillowcases and towels.
The Covenanting army partially demolished Kerlaverk.
The castle soon became redundant as a fortress, and the Maxwells moved away.
It became a romantic ruin, inspiring visitors.
Then Robert Barnes visited it.
In the summer of 1640, the Earl of Knitsdale and 200 men held Lieutenant-Colonel John Hume's
army at bay for 13 weeks, but eventually surrendered.
The fine ribbed vaulting of one of the towers.
This well was one of the reasons the castle could withstand sieges for so long.
This is the bread oven.
The drawbridge chains ran through here.
Long loops from the 16th century.
The Maxwells moved their seat to Teregels, then Trequere House where the present Laird
is a successor.
The Maxwell family still owned Kerlaverk to this day.
Patched above the Firth of Clyde at Gourock, Castle Leven was built around 1430.
It has a commanding position with stunning views over the River Clyde, Loch Long and
the Holy Loch.
It is typical of the small Scottish fortified house with its tiny windows set in deep stone
walls with turrets and battlements.
Its proud defences look down on a courtyard and the 20th century.
Inside you are hardly aware of the castle's modern neighbours.
Recycled wood has been put to great use in the guest bedroom, a medieval design taxing
the skills of modern craftsmen.
Door latches made by a local blacksmith.
The master bedroom occupies almost the entire second floor of the castle, with the ancient
thick walls ensuring peace and quiet.
Even in a medieval house, there is still room for modern comforts.
Dominating the first floor is the Great Hall, still the hub of family life, just as it was
500 years ago.
These reinterpretations of traditional painted ceilings are by the artist Norman Edgar.
They reflect the interests and background of the Pearson family who live here.
Tiny jewels of stained glass light up what might otherwise have been a rather gloomy
corner.
It is hard to believe that such a pleasant home once had an unsavoury owner.
It was built around 1430 and owned by the Morton family.
In the 16th century, it passed to Lord Semphill, whose wife Marion Montgomery was renowned
for her harsh and often cruel treatment of her tenants, even resorting to murder when
it suited her.
She was sentenced to death by Mary of Guise, but was later reprieved in the condition that
she remained within a 10-mile radius of the castle.
Perhaps that wouldn't be much of a punishment today.
All right.
By the end of the 17th century, Castle Leven was unoccupied.
The need for fortified dwellings had largely passed due to more effective central government.
The landed gentry were modelling their homes in keeping with Italian and French fashion,
and gradually time, weather and vandals turned the building like many similar ones in Scotland
into a roofless ruin.
It is difficult to believe that what we see today was rebuilt from just three walls and
a pile of rubble.
With the help of architect Ian Begg, a good stonemason and a team of dedicated craftsmen,
the Pearsons with courage and imagination have restored a building many would have thought
to be too far gone.
The castle's exposed position overlooking the Firth of Clyde means that its stonework
needs the protection of harling.
Even in summer, salt spray can hit the windows.
Unprotected stonework would soon be eroded by winter storms.
This traditional Scottish rendering is made from sand, lime and cement.
The distinctive pink colour of the harling here is caused by the sand which comes from
a quarry near Dumblane.
Attention to traditional detailing continues in the front door and its wrought ironwork.
The courtyard garden is in far contrast to the days when security against one's own neighbours,
as much as any foreign enemy, was the order of the day.
A dismal, overgrown ruin, without a roof or even a water supply, Castle Leven has been
turned into a comfortable family home, with battleman walk and even a flagpole.
Glom's Castle, made famous in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Glom's their art, and colour, and shall be what thou art promised.
Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full of the milk of human kindness.
Daniel Defoe, writing in the eighteenth century, was amazed at Glom's torrets, towers and statues.
He likened the castle to a city.
Today it is the ancestral seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorn, and the childhood
home of Her Majesty the Queen Mother.
Glom's Castle, made famous in the eighteenth century, was the home of Kinghorn, and the
ancestral seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorn, and the childhood home of Her Majesty
the Queen Mother.
James the Sixth keeps a watchful eye over the castle, along with his son Charles the
First.
These lead statues were made by Arnold Quellen in 1686.
This sundial was at the cutting edge of technology in the seventeenth century.
It is a face for every week of the year, and the time could be worked out with quite a
degree of accuracy.
Unfortunately, the sun would have to be shining at the time.
The Dutch Garden was laid out in the 1890s.
Mercury, the messenger of the gods, is the centrepiece.
The lion of the Beauslion family.
Glom's, as we see it today, is largely the creation of Patrick the Third Earl.
In 1646, when he was only three years old, his father died of the plague.
He inherited enormous debts, but eventually paid them off and changed the castle from
a draughty shell into a modern palace.
He looks out over the policies to this day, clearly a man of some style.
A dining room was created in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The centrepiece of the room was the massive oak overmantle with the twelfth earl's arms.
This silver neff in the shape of a gallium, which is the table's focal point, was given
to the Countess in 13th Earl by the estate tenants on their golden wedding anniversary.
The
rose of England and the thistle of Scotland.
The crypt, one of the oldest parts of the castle.
And has it that within these walls is a secret room, where one Lord Glom's played cards
with the Earl of Crawford and the devil himself on the Sabbath.
Another drawing room, once the Great Hall.
The great plaster overmantle is picked out in colour just as was always intended, but
the caryatids look just a little bit uncomfortable.
This is Jacob de Wet's portrait of Earl Patrick in his see-through armour.
De Wet had been brought to Scotland from the Netherlands to work at Holyrood House on a
series of portraits of the kings and queens of Scotland.
Lord Strathmore commissioned him to decorate the chapel at Glom's.
With a sum of £90, he painted scenes from Lord Strathmore's Bible.
The
Mistaken for a gardener, this is the only known
picture of Christ wearing a hat, pictures of disciples and martyrs,
St. Simon wearing spectacles, an ancient oak press in the Queen Mum's sitting room. After
her marriage into the royal family, her mother created these rooms as a retreat for the royal
couple from the pressures of state and publicity. It is very much a family home with intimate family
portraits. The Queen Mother's bedroom.
Amongst all the famous visitors who have come to Glams, James VIII stayed here in 1716. Later,
when in exile on the continent, he declared that Glams was the finest building he had ever seen.