Edzell Castle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Edzell Castle |
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| Near Edzell, Angus, Scotland grid reference NO584691 |
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Edzell Castle and gardens
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 Edzell Castle
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| Coordinates | 56°48′43″N 2°40′48″W / 56.811827°N 2.68002°W |
| Type | Tower house and courtyard |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Earl of Dalhousie, managed by Historic Environment Scotland |
| Controlled by | Lindsays of Edzell |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Condition | Ruined |
| Site history | |
| Built | c. 1520 – 1610 |
| Built by | David Lindsay, 9th Earl of Crawford |
| In use | Until 1715 |
| Materials | Old Red Sandstone |
Edzell Castle is a fascinating ruin in Angus, Scotland. It's a 16th-century castle with a unique walled garden from the early 1600s. You can find it near the village of Edzell, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) north of Brechin.
The castle was started around 1520 by David Lindsay, 9th Earl of Crawford. His son, Sir David Lindsay, Lord Edzell, made it even bigger. He also created the special garden in 1604. Edzell Castle wasn't really built for fighting. It was more like a fancy country home. English soldiers briefly stayed there in 1651 during Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Scotland.
In 1715, the Lindsay family sold the castle. It later became owned by the Earl of Dalhousie. In the 1930s, the Scottish government took care of it. Today, Historic Environment Scotland manages it as a popular visitor attraction. The castle has its original tower house and other buildings around a central courtyard. The nearby Renaissance walled garden is truly special. It has amazing carvings and was replanted in the 1930s.
Contents
What is the History of Edzell Castle?
How Did Edzell Castle Begin?
The very first castle at Edzell was made of wood. It was a motte and bailey castle, built on a mound of earth. This early castle helped protect the entrance to Glenesk, an important path into the Highlands. You can still see the mound, called a motte, about 300 meters (984 feet) southwest of the current castle. It dates back to the 1100s.
This first castle was home to the Abbott family. Later, the Stirlings of Glenesk took over, and then the Lindsays. In 1358, Sir Alexander de Lindsay married Katherine Stirling, who was the heir to the Edzell lands. Alexander's son, David, became the Earl of Crawford in 1398.
Edzell Castle then became the property of a younger branch of the Lindsay family. In 1513, David Lindsay (who died in 1558) inherited it. Around 1520, he decided to build a new castle. He chose a more sheltered spot nearby for a tower house and a courtyard. This new location wasn't chosen for strong defense.
David became the Earl of Crawford in 1542. Around 1550, he added a large west building. This new part included a main entrance gate and a big hall. He also built Invermark Castle, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of Edzell. This might have been a hunting lodge.
Mary, Queen of Scots, visited Edzell Castle on August 25, 1562. She was traveling through Scotland at the time.
Who Was Sir David Lindsay, Lord Edzell?
David Lindsay, the son of the 9th Earl, was very well-educated. He studied in Paris and Cambridge and traveled across Europe. He did not become an Earl like his father. However, he was knighted in 1581. He became a senior judge, known as Lord Edzell, in 1593. In 1598, he joined the Privy Council, a group of royal advisors.
Sir David was a true Renaissance Man. This means he was skilled in many different areas. He worked to improve his lands, including mining and planting trees. He even invited two German experts to search for valuable metals near Edzell.
In August 1562, Sir David Lindsay welcomed Mary, Queen of Scots, to Edzell. The Queen stayed for two nights. She held a meeting of the Privy Council there, with many Scottish nobles attending. Her son, King James VI, visited Edzell twice. He came on June 28, 1580, and again in August 1589.
Sir David made the castle even larger in the late 1500s. He added a big north building with round towers at the corners. In 1604, he created the famous garden. It had symbols of England, Scotland, and Ireland. This celebrated the Union of the Crowns in 1603. That's when James VI became King of England after Queen Elizabeth I died. Sir David died in 1610. He had many debts, and both the garden and the north building were not fully finished.
Why Did Edzell Castle Decline?
Edzell Castle was not damaged during the wars of the 1640s. However, in September 1651, Oliver Cromwell's troops took over Edzell. They stayed there for a month.
The castle started to fall into disrepair around the time of the 1715 Jacobite rising. The last Lindsay lord of Edzell, another David, supported the exiled James Stuart. David had many family debts. He sold the castle to the 4th Earl of Panmure. This Earl also supported James Stuart.
However, Lord Panmure lost his lands and property because he took part in the failed rebellion. The Crown then sold Edzell to the York Buildings Company. This company bought and sold properties that had been taken from rebels. They removed valuable parts of the castle to sell them.
The castle saw its last military action in 1746. A group of government soldiers stayed there, causing more damage. By 1764, the York Buildings Company went bankrupt. The remaining parts of the castle, including the roofs, were sold to pay the company's debts. Even the avenue of beech trees leading to the village was cut down. The property was then sold to William Maule, Earl Panmure. After he died in 1782, it went to his nephew, George Ramsay, 8th Earl of Dalhousie.
How Is Edzell Castle Used Today?
The castle stayed with the Earls of Dalhousie. They hired a caretaker in the 1870s and built a cottage for him in 1901. This cottage is now the visitor center. In 1932, the walled garden became state property. The rest of the castle followed in 1935.
Today, Historic Environment Scotland looks after the castle and garden. They are open to the public all year. The old motte and the castle are protected as Scheduled Ancient Monuments. The garden is also listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. This is a national list of important gardens.
What Does Edzell Castle Look Like?
The Original Castle Mound (Motte)
The motte, or Castlehillock, is all that's left of the first Edzell Castle. It's about 300 meters (984 feet) southwest of the current castle. It's a low mound, partly natural. The mound is about 36 meters (118 feet) long and 16 meters (52 feet) wide. It stands about 4 meters (13 feet) high. A larger courtyard used to surround the motte. It was bordered by a deep ditch.
The Castle Buildings
The castle we see today includes the early 16th-century tower house. It also has the west building, added a bit later, and the north building from the late 1500s. Other buildings to the east and south have disappeared. The red sandstone walls were originally covered with a rough plaster called harl.
The main tower house is called the Stirling Tower. It's 16 meters (52 feet) high and measures 13 meters (43 feet) by 10 meters (33 feet). The walls are very thick, over 2 meters (6.5 feet) at the bottom. You enter the tower house from the north. The door was protected by special gun holes.
The main hall was on the first floor, above two vaulted storage rooms. There was a minstrels' gallery and a wooden screen in the hall. A wide spiral staircase led to three more floors of private rooms. At the top, a small room gave access to a walk around the roof. The tower has small turrets at its corners. The roof walk is supported by decorative stones called corbels. This style, called chequered corbelling, was new at the time.
The two-story west building holds the main entrance. You enter the courtyard through an arched passage. Above the outside gate, there were once spaces for family crests. The windows in this part were larger than those in the tower. They had iron grilles and small gun holes below them. A kitchen was next to the entrance. Above it were a larger hall and a drawing room.
Only the western part of the three-story north building was finished. The Lindsays had planned to complete the whole courtyard. This building had another kitchen and private rooms in the round tower at the northwest corner. You entered it from a stair tower in the courtyard. Parts of this stair tower remain, including some beautifully carved stone around the door. Only the foundations of the east and south buildings are left. These likely held a bakehouse and stables.
What is Special About the Walled Garden?
Sir David Lindsay not only expanded the castle but also created its most unique feature: the walled garden, or "Pleasaunce." Gardens like this were probably common in Scotland during the Renaissance, but Edzell's is one of the few that still exists. The garden was a peaceful place away from the castle. It was designed to entertain and teach Sir David's important guests. Work on it began around 1604, and it seems it was finished quickly before he died in 1610.
The garden is a rectangle, about 52 meters (171 feet) long from north to south and 43.5 meters (143 feet) wide from east to west. It's surrounded by a 3.6-meter (12-foot) high wall. The north wall is part of the castle courtyard. The other three walls are beautifully decorated.
The walls are divided into sections, each about 3 meters (10 feet) wide. Each section has a niche above, which might have held statues. On the east wall, these niches have curved tops carved with scrolls. They also show national symbols: the thistle for Scotland, the fleur-de-lis for France, the shamrock for Ireland, and the rose for England. These symbols remind us of the Union of the Crowns in 1603. The tops on the south wall are square. There are no niches on the west wall, suggesting work stopped suddenly when Sir David died.
Below the niches, the wall sections have different designs. Three sets of seven carved panels appear in every other section. In between these, the walls show the Lindsay coat of arms. This includes a checkered band with three seven-pointed stars from the Stirling of Glenesk family crest. Some spaces in the walls, including inside the stars, might have been for birds to nest.
What Do the Carved Panels Show?
The carved panels show three different themes. On the west wall are the seven Cardinal Virtues. On the south wall are the seven Liberal Arts. On the east wall are the seven Planetary Deities. Each panel is about 1 meter (3.3 feet) high and 60–75 centimeters (2-2.5 feet) wide.
The deities are shown in oval shapes. The arts are under arches, and the virtues are in plain rectangles. Some experts believe the arts panels are the least detailed. This might mean there wasn't much money left to finish them. The carvings of the deities are thought to be the best work.
These carvings were based on popular pictures from engravings. These pictures were often published in pattern books. The images of the deities came from engravings by a German artist named Georg Pencz (around 1528–29). The arts and virtues were based on engravings by Jan Sadeler and Crispijn de Passe. These pictures were very popular in Scotland. For example, the image of Prudence is the same one used to welcome Queen Anne to Scotland in 1589.
| Planetary Deities
These carvings on the east wall show the seven gods and goddesses linked to the planets known in ancient times. |
Liberal Arts
Figures on the south wall represent the subjects taught in old universities. The trivium included grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The quadrivium included arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. |
Cardinal Virtues
Carved on the west wall are the three Christian virtues (trust, hope, and charity) and the four main virtues from ancient Greece.
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Garden Buildings and Plants
To make the garden complete, a bath house and a summer house were built in the corners farthest from the castle. The bath house is now a ruin. But the two-story summer house is still standing. It has a lower room with a vaulted ceiling. The upper room has the only remaining example of the castle's carved-oak wall panelling.
The garden's plants were replanted in the 1930s. We don't have the original plan of the Renaissance garden. However, old records show that fruit was grown there in the 1600s. The garden has decorative hedges. These are trimmed into the shapes of the Scottish thistle, the English rose, and the French fleur-de-lis. Other plants are clipped into letters. They spell out two Lindsay family mottos: Dum Spiro Spero (while I breathe I hope) and Endure Forte (endure firmly).
Images for kids
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Edzell Castle and gardens
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Arms of Sir David Lindsay, and his wife, Dame Isabel Forbes, over the garden gate
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The outer wall of the west range, looking north
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Ground floor plan of the castle, showing phases of construction
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Remains of decorative carving around the door to the courtyard stair tower
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The walled garden, viewed from the upper floor of the tower house
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Reconstruction drawing of Geometria, using information from Jan Sadeler's engraving, upon which the original stone carving was based. Image created by Thomas Small.
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Mars
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Arithmetica
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Prudentia
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The summer house, showing the decoration on the garden walls
