4 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



The chief object deserving of exclusive notice in this route, is the CASTLE OF 

 DOUNE the theatre of several important deeds, and the theme of more than 

 one pathetic ballad. It overhangs the point of a narrow green promontory, 

 with the Teith rolling at its base on one side, and the mountain torrent of 

 Ardoch descending with its tribute from the other. According to tradition, 

 it claims for its founder the unfortunate Murdoch,* duke of Albany, whose 

 fate we have already noticed; but it is evidently of much earlier date, and 

 belongs to the first-rate order of Scottish fortresses. At one end of the front, 

 a spacious square tower rises to the height of eighty feet, succeeded by another 

 of inferior dimensions from behind the opposite extremity. The great hall, 

 OR state chamber between the towers, is seventy feet long, and that in the great 

 tower, forty-five by thirty feet. The kitchen fire-place alone seems of sufficient 

 capacity to have accommodated with warmth and viands a full host of retainers. 

 The whole structure, surrounded by a back wall forty feet high, forms an ample 

 quadrangle of massive architecture. 



In the reign of James V., Sir James Stewart of Beath, ancestor of the Moray 

 family, was appointed constable of the Castle ; and his son obtained a charter, 

 under the great seal, of certain lands to be called the barony of Doune. In 

 the succeeding reign, it served as a retreat for the loyalists of that unhappy 

 period. The demesnes of the castle having been erected into a barony prior 

 to the abolition of hereditary jurisdiction in the year 1748, courts of law were 

 held in it; but, happily for the Scottish peasantry, these " hereditary and 

 exclusive privileges" were thenceforth solemnly transferred to the executive 

 government of the country. Queen Margaret,f and her unfortunate grand- 

 daughter Mary, are said to have frequently resided here. 



In 1745 this fortress was held by Mac Gregor of Glengyle, a nephew of Rob 



Murdoch was son of Robert, (son of Robert II.) who was created earl of Monieath in 1370, 

 and eighteen years later, duke of Albany. In 1406, he succeeded bis brother, Robert III., and reigned 

 fifteen years. In 14-01, Murdoch was taken prisoner by the English at the battle of Homildon, and detained 

 till exchanged for Percy, ten years after. In September 1420, he succeeded his father, but being unfit to 

 hold the reins of government, he was obliged to resign in four years. His resignation was suddenly 

 followed by a charge of high treason, in consequence of which, himself, his two sons, and his father-in-law, 

 Duncan, earl of Lenox, were seized, carried to Stirling, and there beheaded, as already mentioned; 

 Isabella, Murdoch's unhappy wife, being carried from Doune to the Castle of Tamtallan, the heads of her 

 father, her husband, and her two sons, were inhumanly sent to her in prison, to try if in the agony of grief 

 she would reveal the supposed treason ; but her answer was noble and elevated. " If," said she, " the 

 crimes wherewith they were charged be true, then hath the king done justly, and according to law," 



f The dowager Queen Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., married in 1528 Henry Lord Methven, 

 descendant of Murdoch, already mentioned ; and by consent of her son, James V., and her husband, 

 granted to James Stuart, his younger brother, and ancestor of the MORAY family, the custody of the Castle 

 of Doune, which formed part of the settlement made on her marriage with James IV. 



