Cawdor Castle

The castle itself is situated a few miles north of Inverness. It is surrounded by lovely gardens and a forest with very old trees (as at Blair Atholl). I first visited it in 1992 but as we were a bit late on our tour we decided not to go inside just before closing time. In 2008 I returned and took some nice photographs from the outside (just three shown above). Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside, so there are none I can provide but I can say that it was worth the visit.

Campbell of Cawdor

Some people wonder how a castle so far in the east came into Campbell hands. Here is the story:

Archibald (2nd Earl) of Argyll's appointment as a Royal Lieutenant with vice-regal authority in the West marked a decisive stage in the rise to preeminence of Clan Campbell, who throughout the fifteenth century had steadily and methodically extended their territories and influence in Cowal, in Knapdale, in Lorne and, latterly, at the expense of the Fletchers and MacGregors who had formerly dwelt there, in neighbouring Glenorchy.

During the next twenty years Earl Archibald, who, like his father, held many high offices of state, did everything he could, as Lieutenant of the Isles, to establish the greatest possible measure of control over the Western Highlands and Islands, while at the same time progressively strengthening his own position and that of his clan. With the decline of Clan Donald, the Campbells were to play an ever more important part in Highland affairs, usually, though not invariably, in support of established authority.

At the turn of the century Archibald of Argyll contrived by an unusually clever stratagem to extend his clan's influence deep into northeastern Scotland, far outside its usual sphere of action.

Not many weeks after the death in 1495 of John, Thane of Cawdor, the latter's ancient inheritance passed to his posthumous daughter Muriel. In the ensuing confusion, Archibald, who happened to be Justice General, managed, without too much difficulty, to secure the child's wardship for himself. At the same time he found means of bringing pressure to bear on Muriel's maternal grandfather, Rose of Kilravock, a neighbouring Nairnshire chieftain, who happened at the time to be facing a charge of armed robbery.

Four years after this, in 1499, he sent sixty Campbell clansmen to Cawdor to carry off little Muriel, now a red-haired child of four. According to tradition, she was captured by Sir John Campbell and his party, while out with her nurse near Cawdor castle. Her uncles pursued and overtook the division of the Campbells to whose care she had been intrusted, and would have rescued her but for the presence of mind of Campbell of Inverliver, who, seeing their approach, inverted a large camp kettle as if to conceal her, and commanding his seven sons to defend it to the death, hurried on with his prize. The young men were all slain, and when the Calders lifted up the kettle, no Muriel was there. Meanwhile so much time had been gained that further pursuit was useless. Characteristically, Argyll had foreseen every contingency and, when someone naively suggested that, if Muriel were to die, his carefully laid plan might fall through, his interrogator at once Campbell of Auchinbreck uttered the assurance that,

"so long as a red-haired lass could be found in Campbell country",

little Muriel would never die. In fact the true Muriel, whom her mother had prudently branded with a red hot key, while her devoted old nurse had bitten off the end of one of her fingers to make her even more readily identifiable, remained alive and in due course actually married Archibald of Argyll's third sonJohn, who thus became the first Campbell of Cawdor. To this day, his direct descendant, the present Earl of that Ilk, still resides in the fine castle which Muriel's grandfather, the Thane, built for himself in 1454 on the spot, it is said, where a wandering donkey laden with a box of gold had conveniently come to rest under a hawthorn tree, which can still be seen incorporated within the castle building.

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link to the official Cawdor Castle website

Castles I visited

Edinburgh	Eilean Donan	Duntulm	Dun Bheagan	Dunrobin	Cawdor	Blair Atholl	Braemar	Kirkwall	Strome	Knock	Moil

Armadale	Mey	Stirling	Tantallon	Thurso	Birsay	Kirkwall	Balmoral	Stuart	Corgarff	Stalker	Ackergill Tower

Inverness	Balvenie	Loch Lomond	Dun Sciath	Kilravock Castle	Elgin	old Keiss	new Keiss	Girnigoe	Sinclair	Urquhart	Old Wick

Carbisdale	Tongue	Kilberry	Tarbert	Stonefield	Sadell	Torisdale	Skipness	Carnasserie	Dunadd	Dunstaffnage	Barcaldine

Brodick	Lochranza	Dunaverty	Inveraray	Kilchurn				Ruthven Barracks	Fort William	Fort Augustus	Fort George