Doune Castle

Doune Castle is an imposing Medieval castle in central Scotland, sited on a wooded bend where a tributary joins the River Teith, across a bridge from the village of Doune. It lies 8 miles (13 km) north-west of Stirling where the River Teith flows into the River Forth. Upstream, 8 miles (13 km) further north-west the town of Callander lies at the edge of the Trossachs mountain region of the Scottish highlands.

The site is defended on three sides by the ground sloping steeply down to the rivers, and the approach from the fourth side is defended by earthworks. The castle is entered through a narrow gateway and a 46 ft (14 m) long vaulted passageway that leads to a large central courtyard. Off this, steps lead up to the Great hall which has arched hatches and a door to a servery leading to the massive kitchen. An enclosed staircase from the courtyard reaches the timber panelled Lord's hall and other apartments, which altogether give a vivid impression of life in a medieval castle.

History

The castle was largely built at the end of the 14th century by Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany whose brother King Robert III of Scotland became unfit to rule, and from 1388 Albany governed the Kingdom. The King's eldest son, in Albany's custody, died mysteriously in 1402. On Albany's death in 1420 control of the country and the castle passed to his son, Murdoch, but when King James I of Scotland returned in 1424 from captivity in England Murdoch was imprisoned for treason then beheaded.

Doune Castle then became a royal retreat and hunting lodge for monarchs including Mary Queen of Scots.

During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Doune Castle became a prison for government supporters captured by the Jacobites, some of whom including the author John Hume escaped by knotting together bedsheets and climbing from the kitchen window. Another prisoner was a Scottish minister John Witherspoon who later moved to the American colonies and became a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Doune castle in fiction

Waverley

In Walter Scott's first novel Waverley the protagonist Edmund Waverley is under government escort when he is rescued by Highlanders, rushed across country and brought to Doune castle. Although the road is now tarmac, the village is pleasant rather than mean and the bridge is a bit wider and less ancient, the description is still good today;

On the opposite bank of the river, and partly surrounded by a winding of its stream, stood a large and massive castle, the half-ruined turrets of which were already glittering in the first rays of the sun. It was in form an oblong square, of size sufficient to contain a large court in the centre. The towers at each angle of the square rose higher than the walls of the building, and were in their turn surmounted by turrets, differing in height and irregular in shape. Upon one of these a sentinel watched, whose bonnet and plaid, streaming in the wind, declared him to be a Highlander, as a broad white ensign, which floated from another tower, announced that the garrison was held by the insurgent adherents of the House of Stuart.

Passing hastily through a small and mean town, where their appearance excited neither surprise nor curiosity in the few peasants whom the labours of the harvest began to summon from their repose, the party crossed an ancient and narrow bridge of several arches, and, turning to the left up an avenue of huge old sycamores, Waverley found himself in front of the gloomy yet picturesque structure which he had admired at a distance. A huge iron-grated door, which formed the exterior defence of the gateway, was already thrown back to receive them; and a second, heavily constructed of oak and studded thickly with iron nails, being next opened, admitted them into the interior court-yard. A gentleman, dressed in the Highland garb and having a white cockade in his bonnet, assisted Waverley to dismount from his horse, and with much courtesy bid him welcome to the castle.

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail

When Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed on location in Scotland in 1974, Doune Castle was used as the setting for several castles in the film. At the start of the film King Arthur and Patsy "ride" up (clip-clopping coconut shells) to the walls of Doune castle to ask for assistance in finding the Holy Grail, but a soldier on the battlements gets them into an argument as to whether a swallow could have brought the coconut. Later, their dream of (only a model) Camelot is illustrated by the Knights of the Round Table doing a song and dance routine in the Great hall. Then John Cleese shouts down abuse in an outrageous French accent and cows etc. are hurled from the battlement, followed by a failed wooden rabbit of troy trick. Shortly afterwards Sir Galahad the chaste is chased by Doune castle's servery full of seductive virgins. A couple of scenes on a marriage turns into mayhem on the steps up from the courtyard. The exception is at the end of the film, when they get more outrageous French abuse from the battlements of Castle Stalker.

Doune castle has become a place of pilgrimage for Monty Python devotees, who can walk about the castle recalling scenes from the film, sometimes with the aid of coconut shells from the custodian. Re-enactments go through slightly mangled versions of the plot. The special DVD version of Monty Python and the Holy Grailincludes a documentary with Michael Palin and Terry Jones revisiting the sites used for filming, with suitable emphasis on Doune castle.