Doune Castle

Medieval Doune castle is located a little over an hours drive northwest of Edinburgh, in Central Scotland.  In its current form, the castle was built sometime in the thirteenth century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and son of Robert ll, King of the Scots.

Over the centuries, the castle has been used as a royal stronghold, a military garrison and a hunting lodge for Scottish monarchs.  One of its more interesting uses was as a dower house, which is usually a moderately large house or manor where a widow is sent to live after her husband dies.  In the 15th and 16th centuries, Doune Castle was the dower home for three consecutive widowed consorts to Kings of Scotland (James ll, James lll and James lV).

Another interesting piece of the castle’s history was when it was used as a prison during the Jacobite rising of 1745.  The castle was then held by Bonnie Prince Charlie who had imprisoned English Army troops there after the battle of Falkirk.  The prisoners included the writer John Home and a minister named John Witherspoon.  Home and Witherspoon, with a number of other prisoners, escaped to freedom by knotting together bedsheets and lowering themselves from an upper window of the castle.  John Witherspoon later relocated to America and helped sign the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

All of that history pales in comparison, of course, to the backdrop the castle provided for the 1974 cinematic masterpiece, Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Interestingly, the movie’s producers had permission from The National Trust of Scotland to film at several of their castles, but at the last minute The Trust withdrew their permissions. This left the Monty Python team with a single private castle in which they had permission to film at, and thus, Doune Castle became the location for almost every interior and exterior castle scene in the movie!

Doune Castle selfie! Note the lower wall extending left of the castle was where a French soldier taunted King Arthur and his knights : )

The main entrance to Doune Castle was where they filmed the Trojan rabbit scene

Outer courtyard wall as seen from the forest below

Main entrance to the courtyard, where the flower clad guards of Swamp Castle stood against Sir Lancelot’s charge

Doune Castle’s courtyard, scene of Sir Lanelot’s daring and heroic rescue in his own particular ... idiom

Stairs leading from Doune Castle’s courtyard to the kitchen and servery

Gargoyles overlooking the inner courtyard

Another memorable location from Sir Lancelot’s Swamp Castle wedding crash

The amazing built-in oven of Doune Castle’s kitchen

The servery, which is connected to Doune Castle’s kitchen, was the filming location for Castle Anthrax. ‘Bad, bad, naughty Zoot.’

Angela tracing in the steps of Mary, Queen of Scots, who stayed in these private chambers on multiple occasions

Sunlight shining through leaded glass windows in the upstairs private chambers at Doune Castle

Doune Castle’s main hall was where the ‘Knights of the Round Table’ song and dance routine at Camelot happened

Once again, the sunlight through the leaded windows at Doune was absolutely beautiful

“We dine well here in Camelot; We eat ham and jam and spam a lot!”

Chris, following in the steps of Sir Galahad the chaste, as he ventures deeper into the seductive halls of Castle Anthrax

The Duchess’ hall, where prince Harold was being held in Swamp Castle by his Father and two very simple guards

One of the many well-worn circular staircases in Doune Castle

Well, on second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.