Blair Castle

Blair Castle

A white castle in the hills

Blair Castle gleams brilliant white against the green hills of Highland Perthshire, near the village of Blair Atholl. With its turrets, crow-stepped gables and bright harled walls, it looks every inch the storybook Scottish castle. It is the historic seat of the Earls and Dukes of Atholl, chiefs of Clan Murray, and behind its cheerful appearance lies more than seven hundred years of dramatic history.

A castle that kept changing

The oldest part of Blair Castle is said to date back to 1269, when a neighbouring lord began building a tower on the Atholl family's land while its earl was away — a tower the Atholls quickly took for themselves. Over the centuries the castle was rebuilt and reshaped many times to suit the fashions of each age. In the eighteenth century it was remodelled into a plain Georgian mansion; then, in the nineteenth century, it was given back its romantic turrets and battlements, becoming the fairytale "Scots Baronial" castle we see today.

The last siege in Britain

Blair Castle holds a remarkable record: it was the last castle in the British Isles ever to be besieged. This happened in 1746, during the final Jacobite rising. The castle was held by government soldiers, and a Jacobite force — led, strangely enough, by a member of the very family that owned it — surrounded it and tried to force them out. The siege failed, and after the Jacobite cause was crushed soon afterwards, no castle on British soil was ever besieged again.

Europe's only private army

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Blair Castle is that its owner is allowed to keep his own private army. The Atholl Highlanders are a body of soldiers loyal to the Duke of Atholl, and after they impressed Queen Victoria during a visit in the nineteenth century, she granted the duke the right to keep them as an official regiment. To this day they remain the only legal private army in Europe — though now they are a proud ceremonial guard, parading in kilts at the castle each year rather than fighting in any war.

Visiting today

Blair Castle is filled with treasures gathered over the centuries: grand halls, fine furniture and paintings, and a famous collection of weapons and armour. Around it spread beautiful gardens, deer parkland and woodland walks. Visitors can explore room after room, learn the story of the last great siege, and — if they time their visit well — watch the Atholl Highlanders on parade, a living link to the castle's long and colourful past.