Castles from the Sky

The title for The Scotland Channel film Castles from the Sky is a play on the title of the song Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl and singer Martine D. J. Theeuwen, better known as Marsha. The song was a hit in Scotland in 2001 reaching Number 1 in the Scottish Music Charts for two weeks running.

Balmoral Castle

Balmoral Castle is best known as one of the many retreats of the English monarchy and is located near the village of Crathie, 9 miles west of Ballater and 50 miles west of Aberdeen.

The castle (and estate) was acquired from the Farquharson family in 1852 by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, but the original castle was said to be 'too small' for their needs so they had it demolished and commissioned the existing castle to replace it.

Designed by Aberdeen architect, William Smith, Balmoral is an example of Scottish baronial architecture and was completed in 1856. It is a Category A Listed building.

Balvenie Castle

A ruined castle, located less than a mile north of Dufftown in Morayshire, it was built in the 12th century by a branch of the once powerful Comyn family and fell out of use following an attack by Robert The Bruce in 1308.

Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, West Lothian and sits on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.

At this time, Blackness was the main port serving the Royal Burgh of Linlithgow, one of the main residences of the Scottish monarch. The castle, together with the Crichton lands, passed to James II of Scotland in 1453, and the castle has been crown property ever since.

The castle once also served as a prison.

Strengthened by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart in the mid-16th century, the castle became one of the most advanced artillery fortifications of its time in Scotland. A century later, these defences were not enough to prevent Blackness falling to Oliver Cromwell's army in 1650. It was used as a location in the filming of the hit TV show Outlander.

Castle Stalker

Castle Stalker is a four-storey tower house or keep located on a tidal islet on Loch Laich in Argyll 1.5 miles north-east of Port Appin. 

The name "Stalker" comes from the Gaelic Stalcaire, meaning "hunter" or "falconer". One of the best preserved medieval tower houses to survive in western Scotland, it is a Category A listed building.

It replaced an earlier fort built around 1320 and the present structure dates from around 1440.

Crathes Castle

16th Century Crathes Castle is located near Banchory, Aberdeenshire, and sits on land gifted to the Burnett of Leys family by King Robert The Bruce. The family had built a fortification or crannog on the site in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Construction of the current Castle began in 1553 but was delayed several times and was only completed in 1596 by Alexander Burnett of Leys with an additional wing added in the 18th Century.

The castle is now owned by The National Trust for Scotland. It was gifted to them by Sir James Burnett in 1951 .

Doune Castle

Situated near the village of Doune in Stirlingshire, the castle is a medieval stronghold.

Doune Castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, then probably damaged in the Scottish Wars of Independence, before being rebuilt in its present form in the late 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany circa. 1340–1420, the son of Robert II of Scotland, and Regent of Scotland from 1388 until his death.

The castle deteriorated through the 18th century, and by 1800 Doune was a roofless ruin. It remained so until the 1880s, when George Stuart, 14th Earl of Moray (1816–1895) began repair works. The timber roofs were replaced, and the interiors, including the panelling in the Lord's Hall, were installed. The castle is now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland, having been donated to a predecessor organisation by Douglas Stuart, 20th Earl of Moray, in 1984, and is open to the public. The castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Drum Castle

Drum Castle is located near Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, 8 miles north east of Banchory and 3.5 miles from Peterculter. For centuries it was the seat of the chief of Clan Irvine. The place-name Drum is derived from Gaelic drum, meaning 'ridge'.

Now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and open to the public, the original 13th-century tower of Drum Castle is thought to have been  been designed by medieval architect Richard Cementarius, who built the Brig o' Balgownie, the first Bridge of Don, in Old Aberdeen.

The castle and its grounds were granted to William de Irwyn in 1323 by Robert the Bruce, and remained in the possession of Clan Irvine until 1975.

The castle is Category-A Listed.

Duart Castle

Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull was probably built by Clan MacDougall in the 13th century, and appears to have come into the hands of Clan MacLean in the following century.

In 1647, Duart Castle was attacked and laid siege to by the Argyll government troops of Clan Campbell.

In 1691, Duart Castle was surrendered by Sir John Maclean, 4th Baronet, to the 10th Earl of Argyll (who was later created, in 1701, the 1st Duke of Argyll). The Campbell clan partially demolished the castle, and the stones from the walls were scattered. 

Descendants of the 1st Duke of Argyll sold the castle in 1801 to the MacQuarrie family, who then sold it to Carter-Campbell of Possil who kept it as a ruin within the grounds of his own estate to the north, Torosay Castle.

He later sold his Torosay Estate, which now included the ruins of Castle Duart, to A. C. Guthrie in 1865. On September 11th, 1911, the ruin was separated from the rest of the Torosay Estate and was bought by Sir Fitzroy Donald Maclean, the 26th Chief of the Clan MacLean, and restored.

By 2012, additional restorations were required and a fund was set up to accept donations for this purpose. The final phase of the restoration is currently underway.

Dunnottar Castle

Dunnottar Castle, Dùn Fhoithear in Gaelic meaning "fort on the shelving slope" is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland about 2 miles south of Stonehaven.

The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. Dunnottar has played a prominent role in the history of Scotland through to the 18th-century Jacobite risings because of its strategic location and defensive strength.

Dunnottar is best known as the place where the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, were hidden from Oliver Cromwell's invading army in the 17th century. The property of the Keiths from the 14th century, and the seat of the Earl Marischal, Dunnottar declined after the last Earl forfeited his titles by taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. The castle was restored in the 20th century and is now open to the public.

Dunvegan Castle

Dunvegan Castle, Caisteal Dhùn Bheagain in Gaelic, is located a mile to the north of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye.

The seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod, tt was probably a fortified site from the earliest times. The castle was first built in the 13th century and developed piecemeal over the centuries.

In the 19th century the whole castle was remodelled in a mock-medieval style. The castle is built on an elevated rock overlooking an inlet on the eastern shore of Loch Dunvegan, a sea loch.

Edinburgh Castle

Standing on Castle Rock with views across the city, Edinburgh Castle is Scotland's most visited tourist attraction hosting the world-famous Edinburgh Military Tattoo every August.

There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of Malcolm III in the 11th century, and the castle continued to be a royal residence until 1633.

From the 15th century, the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as a military garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half.

More than 2.2 million people visit the castle each year.

Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan Castle frequently appears in photographs, film and television. It's built on a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs: Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in the western Highlands less than a mile from the village of Dornie.

The tidal island is connected to the mainland by a footbridge that was installed early in the 20th century.

The island's original castle was built in the thirteenth century; it became a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies, the Clan MacRae. In response to the Mackenzies' involvement in the Jacobite rebellions early in the 18th century, government ships destroyed the castle in 1719.

The present-day 20th century castle was built by Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap.

Glamis Castle

Glamis Castle is located near to the village of Glamis in Angus. It is the home of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and is open to the public.

Glamis Castle has been the home of the Lyon family since the 14th century, though the present building dates largely from the 17th century.

Glamis Castle was the childhood home of the late Queen of England, Elizabeth II. Her second daughter, Princess Margaret was born there on August 21st, 1930.

The castle is a category A listed building .

Lennox Castle

Lennox Castle is an abandoned castle in Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, approximately 12 miles north of Glasgow.

The castle was built between 1837 and 1841 by David Hamilton for John Lennox Kincaid, on the Lennox of Woodhead Estate, replacing Kincaid House.

In 1927, the castle and its land was purchased by the Glasgow Corporation, and converted into a hospital for people with learning disabilities in 1936.

There was also a separate maternity unit in operation between the 1940s and 1960s. The singer Lulu and footballer John Brown were born there.

This hospital was closed in 2002.

The castle itself  is Category A listed since the 1970s but it has been in ruins following a fire in 2008.

Part of the grounds of the castle were converted into Celtic F.C.'s Lennoxtown Training Centre.

Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle is one of the largest and most historically important castles in Scotland.

Sitting atop an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation, it is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification in the area from the earliest times.

Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures remain from the fourteenth century, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century.

Before the union with England, Stirling Castle was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences. Several Kings and Queens of Scots were crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots whilst others were born or died there.

Urquhart Castle

Urquhart is a ruined castle that sits beside Loch Ness 13 miles south west of Inverness.

The present ruins date from the 13th to the 16th centuries, though built on the site of an early medieval fortification. Founded in the 13th century, Urquhart played a role in the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century.

It was subsequently held as a royal castle and was raided on several occasions by the MacDonald Earls of Ross.

The castle was granted to the Clan Grant in 1509, though conflict with the MacDonalds continued. Despite a series of further raids, the castle was strengthened, only to be largely abandoned by the middle of the 17th century. Urquhart was partially destroyed in 1692 to prevent its use by Jacobite forces, and subsequently decayed.

In the 20th century, it was placed in state care as a scheduled monument and opened to the public. It is now one of the most-visited castles in Scotland.