Darnaway Castle

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Darnaway Castle

Darnaway Castle , also Tarnaway Castle , is a country house and a former castle in Darnaway Forest , about 5 km southwest of Forres in the Scottish administrative division of Moray . This was the land of Clan Cumming , which King Robert I, along with the Earldom Moray, gave to Thomas Randolph . The castle has remained the seat of the Earls of Moray ever since. In 1810 Darnaway Castle was rebuilt and includes the old banquet hall , which can accommodate 1,000 men.

The Randolphs and the Douglases

Sir Thomas Randolph probably had the first castle built. John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray , died in 1346 at the Battle of Neville's Cross without leaving any male offspring. So the Earldom fell to Patrick Dunbar , the husband of one of John's daughters. The male line of the Dunbars ended around 1430 and the Earldom fell to the Douglas clan . When Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray died on May 1, 1455 in a battle in which he and his brothers against King James III. fought who decided to usurp the power that the Douglases defended by sword, the Douglases had forfeited their title and the Darnaway estate along with other possessions. They now fell to the Murray clan and then to the House of Stuart , with whose descendants they remained.

Medieval knight hall

The castle in 1804, before the renovation

The banquet hall is the only remaining part of the castle built by Archibald Douglas in 1450. It still has its hammer-beam vaulted ceiling from the 15th century, which makes it one of only two medieval halls in Scotland with this original ceiling construction, “an almost unique example in Scotland”. The knight's hall was already remarkable in 1562, when an English observer described it as "very beautiful and large built". In November 1501, the Knights' Hall with was Spune Thak (wood shingles ), which were carved by a carpenter, at the behest of King James IV. Re-roofed. King Jacob kept his mistress , Janet Kennedy , at Darnaway Castle.

Randolph's jump

To the south of the castle, where the Findhorn rushes through a ravine, Randolph's Leap is reminiscent of the type of long jump one normally associates with Robert Roy MacGregor . It was probably not carried out by Earl Randolph, but by his prey, Alastair Comyn from nearby Dunphail . The Darnaway estate has a visitor center and several acres of deciduous forest . The castle is still inhabited.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James Fittler, John Claude Nattes: Scotia Depicta, or the antiquities, castles, public buildings, noblemen and gentlemen's seats, cities, towns and picturesque scenery of Scotland 1804, p. 25 (accessed June 19, 2017).
  2. ^ David MacGibbon, Thomas Ross: The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland . 1887-1892.
  3. ^ Calendar of State Papers Scotland . Volume 1. 1898. p. 655: Thomas Randolph to Cecil 30 Sept. 1562 .
  4. ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Treasurer of Scotland . Volume 2. 1900. pp. XXI, 47, 294.

swell

  • Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland . 2000.
  • Martin Coventry: Castles of the Clans . 2008.
  • Herbert Maxwell: History of the House of Douglas . 1902.

Web links

Commons : Darnaway Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 57 ° 34 ′ 27.5 "  N , 3 ° 40 ′ 58.1"  W.