Cawdor Castle is a castle in the parish of
Cawdor
Cawdor ( gd, Caladair) is a village and parish in the Highland council area, Scotland. The village is south-southwest of Nairn and east of Inverness. The village is in the Historic County of Nairnshire.
History
The village is the location o ...
in
Nairnshire
The County of Nairn (also called Nairnshire) ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Narann) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county was used for local administration until the county council, based at the county t ...
, Scotland. It is built around a 15th-century
tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...
, with substantial additions in later centuries. Originally a property of the
Calder family, it passed to the
Campbells in the 16th century. It remains in Campbell ownership, and is now home to the Dowager Countess Cawdor, stepmother of
Colin Campbell, 7th Earl Cawdor
Colin Robert Vaughan Campbell, 7th Earl Cawdor, DL (born 30 June 1962), is a Scottish peer and architect. He is also known for having had legal issues with his stepmother Countess Cawdor. He is the elder son and third child of Hugh John Vaughan C ...
.
The castle is perhaps best known for its literary connection to
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's tragedy ''
Macbeth'', in which the title character is made "
Thane of Cawdor
Thane of Cawdor is a title in the Peerage of Scotland.
The current 7th Earl of Cawdor, of Clan Campbell of Cawdor, is the 26th Thane of Cawdor.
In William Shakespeare's play '' Macbeth'', this title was given to Macbeth after the previous Th ...
". However, the story is highly fictionalised, and the castle itself, which is never directly referred to in ''Macbeth'', was built many years after the life of the 11th-century
King Macbeth.
The castle is a
category A listed building
Category, plural categories, may refer to:
Philosophy and general uses
*Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally
*Category of being
* ''Categories'' (Aristotle)
*Category (Kant)
* Categories (Peirce)
* ...
,
and the grounds are included in the
Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland
The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a cont ...
, the national listing of significant gardens.
History
The earliest documented date for the castle is 1454, the date a
licence to fortify
In medieval England, Wales and the Channel Islands a licence to crenellate (or licence to fortify) granted the holder permission to fortify his property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within the ...
was granted to William Calder, 6th Thane of Cawdor (or Calder, as the name was originally spelled).
[ However, some portions of the 15th-century tower house or keep may precede that date.][ Architectural historians have dated the style of stonework in the oldest portion of the castle to approximately 1380. One curious feature of the castle is that it was built around a small, living holly tree. Tradition states that a donkey, laden with gold, lay down to rest under this tree, which was then selected as the site of the castle. The remains of the tree may still be seen in the lowest level of the tower. Modern scientific testing has shown that the tree died in approximately 1372,][ lending credence to the earlier date of the castle's first construction. The iron ]yett
A yett (from the Old English and Scots language word for "gate") is a gate or grille of latticed wrought iron bars used for defensive purposes in castles and tower houses. Unlike a portcullis, which is raised and lowered vertically using mecha ...
(gate) here was brought from nearby Lochindorb Castle,[ which was dismantled by William around 1455, on the orders of ]King James II
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
, after it had been forfeited by the Earl of Moray.
The castle was expanded numerous times in the succeeding centuries. In 1510 the heiress of the Calders, Muriel, married Sir John Campbell of Muckairn,[ who set about extending the castle. Their children included Campbell, ]Katherine Campbell, Countess of Crawford
Katherine Campbell, Countess of Crawford born Katherine Campbell ( – 1578) was a Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish noblewoman. She married twice and controlled a substantial inheritance.
Life
Her parents were Muriel (born Calde) and Sir John Campb ...
. Further improvements were made by John Campbell, 3rd of Cawdor (c.1576 - c.1642), who purchased rich lands on Islay.[ By 1635 a garden had been added, and after the Restoration Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor added or improved the north and west ranges, employing the masons James and Robert Nicolson of Nairn.][
]
In the 1680s Sir Alexander Campbell, son of Sir Hugh, became stranded in Milford Haven during a storm, where he met a local heiress, Elizabeth Lort of Stackpole Court.[ The two were married and afterwards the Campbells of Cawdor lived mainly on their estates in Pembrokeshire. Cawdor was home to younger brothers of the family who continued to manage the estates, building a walled flower garden in 1720, and establishing extensive woodlands in the later 18th century.][
]John Campbell of Cawdor
John Campbell of Stackpole Court and Cawdor (1695–1777), was a British politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Pembrokeshire, Nairnshire, Inverness Burghs and Corfe Castle.
He was born the second son of Sir Alexander Campbell, ...
, a Member of Parliament, married a daughter of the Earl of Carlisle
Earl of Carlisle is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England.
History
The first creation came in 1322, when Andrew Harclay, 1st Baron Harclay, was made Earl of Carlisle. He had already been summoned to Parliamen ...
in 1789, and was ennobled as Lord Cawdor in 1796. In 1827, his son was created Earl Cawdor
Earl Cawdor, of Castlemartin in the County of Pembroke, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1827 for John Campbell, 2nd Baron Cawdor.
This branch of Clan Campbell descends from Sir John Campbell (died 1546), th ...
. During the 19th century, Cawdor was used as a summer residence by the Earls.[ The architects Thomas Mackenzie and Alexander Ross were commissioned to add the southern and eastern ranges to enclose a courtyard, accessed by a drawbridge.][ In the 20th century John Campbell, 5th Earl Cawdor, moved permanently to Cawdor.
His second son James Campbell (potter)(1942-2019) was born here. John was succeeded by the 6th Earl, whose second wife, the Dowager Countess Angelika, born countess Lažanský from Bohemia, lives there still. In 2001 it was reported that the Countess had prevented her stepson from sowing ]genetically modified
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including ...
rapeseed on the Cawdor estate, and in 2002 the Countess took the Earl to court after he moved into the castle while she was away.
Gardens
The castle is known for its gardens, which include the Walled Garden (originally planted in the 17th century), the Flower Garden (18th century),[ and the Wild Garden (added in the 1960s). In addition, the castle grounds include a wood featuring numerous species of trees (as well as over 100 species of lichen).
]
Shakespeare connection
The name of Cawdor still connects the castle to Shakespeare's play '' Macbeth''. However, the story portrayed by Shakespeare takes extensive liberties with history. The historical King Macbeth ruled Scotland from 1040 to 1057, after his forces killed King Duncan I in battle near Elgin. Macbeth was never Thane of Cawdor, this being an invention of the 15th-century writer Hector Boece
Hector Boece (; also spelled Boyce or Boise; 1465–1536), known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and the first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Abe ...
. Moreover, Cawdor Castle did not exist during the lifetimes of Macbeth or Duncan, and it is never explicitly mentioned in the play. The 5th Earl Cawdor is quoted as saying, "I wish the Bard had never written his damned play!"[
]
References
External links
Cawdor Castle (official website of Cawdor Castle)
*
{{Clan Campbell
Castles in Highland (council area)
Category A listed buildings in Highland (council area)
Listed castles in Scotland
Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes
Gardens in Highland (council area)
Historic house museums in Highland (council area)
Country houses in Highland (council area)
County of Nairn
Tower houses in Scotland