Guarding one of the main routes between Stirling and the Highlands, Doune castle played an important role in governing Scotland.

Doune Castle was built largely in the 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. He virtually ruled Scotland during the reign of Robert III between 1388 - 1420.
Robert Stewart died in 1320 and his son Murdoch inherited the role of Regent of Scotland. Murdoch was imprisoned , then beheaded when James I returned from captivity in England. James I believed his family had done too little to secure his release. Doune Castle was confiscated by the Crown and was used as a royal hunting lodge.

The best preserved medieval castle in Scotland lies South of where the River Teith and the Ardoch Burn meet.

The Stewarts used the castle as a country retreat from Stirling. The castle was occasionally used by Mary Queen of Scots and was held by men loyal to her until 1570.

The castle was used as a prison for government supporters during the 1745 Rebellion. John Hume, the author and some other prisoners escaped by knotting together bedsheets and climbing from the kitchen window.

The castle is protected by two rivers, surrounding banks and dry ditches.

There is a 95 foot gatehouse, vaulted rooms, a splendid Lord's Hall with it's carved oak screen, musicians gallery and double fireplace.

The castle fell into ruin but was restored by the 14th Earl of Moray in 1883 and is currently maintained by Historic Scotland.

Doune Castle is in demand as a film location and can be seen in 'Ivanhoe' and 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. The Monty Python and The Holy Grail song and dance routine at ‘Camelot’ was filmed in the Great Hall at Doune Castle and the servery and kitchen appear as ‘Castle Anthrax’, where Sir Galahad the Chaste (Michael Palin) is chased by seductive women. The wedding disrupted by Sir Lancelot (John Cleese) was filmed in the courtyard and Great Hall.

Doune Castle has featured in several literary works, including the 17th-century ballad The Bonny Earl of Murray which relates the murder of James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray by the Earl of Huntly in 1592. In Sir Walter Scott’s first novel, Waverley (1814), the protagonist Edward Waverley is brought to Doune Castle by the Jacobites. Scott's romantic novel describes the ‘gloomy yet picturesque structure’, with its ‘half-ruined turrets’.

The castle was used as a location in MGM’s 1952 historical film Ivanhoe, starring Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor, and for the HBO TV series Game of Thrones.

Photographs © Alice Gent