Blair Castle
Encyclopedia
Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 of Blair Atholl
Blair Atholl
Blair Atholl is a small town in Perthshire, Scotland, built about the confluence of the Rivers Tilt and Garry in one of the few areas of flat land in the midst of the Grampian Mountains. The Gaelic place-name Blair, from blàr, 'field, plain', refers to this location...

 in Perthshire
Perthshire
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...

 in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It is the home of the Clan Murray
Clan Murray
Clan Murray is a Highland Scottish clan. The Murrays were a great and powerful clan whose lands and cadet houses were scattered throughout Scotland.- Origins of the Clan :...

 family, who hold the title of Duke of Atholl
Duke of Atholl
Duke of Atholl, alternatively Duke of Athole, named after Atholl in Scotland, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland held by the head of Clan Murray...

, though the current (11th) Duke, John Murray
John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl
John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl , known as John Murray until 1996, is a British peer.Murray was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the only child of Major George Murray , who was killed on active service in the Second World War, and Joan , daughter of William Edward Eastwood, of South Africa...

, (born 1929) lives in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

The Castle is said to have been started in 1269 by John I Comyn, Lord of Badenoch
John I Comyn, Lord of Badenoch
John Comyn was Lord of Badenoch in Scotland. He was justiciar of Galloway in 1258. He held lands in Nithsdale and Tynedale.-Life:...

, a northern neighbour of the Earl of Atholl
Earl of Atholl
The Mormaer of Earl of Atholl refers to a medieval comital lordship straddling the highland province of Atholl , now in northern Perthshire. Atholl is a special Mormaerdom, because a King of Atholl is reported from the Pictish period. The only other two Pictish kingdoms to be known from...

, who started building on the Earl's land while he was away on crusade. Upon his return, the Earl complained about the interloper to King Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...

, won back his land and incorporated the tower that had been built into his own Castle.

It commands a strategic position on the main route through the Central Scottish Highlands. Lowland Clan Agnew
Clan Agnew
Clan Agnew is a Lowland Scottish clan from Wigtownshire and Galloway in the southwest of Scotland.-Origins:There are two theories as to the origins of the name Agnew. The most widely accepted is that the name is French and derives from the Barony d'Agneaux in Normandy. Emigrants from the region...

 held Blair Castle, seat of the Duke of Atholl, against the Jacobites who laid siege to the castle during the Jacobite uprising
Jacobite rising
The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...

 of 1745-1746. They were besieged to near starvation until the Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

 forces withdrew to fight the British Government forces at the Battle of Culloden
Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

.

The Castle, one of Scotland's major stately homes, is open for visitors on a daily basis (entrance charge). Its many rooms feature important collections of weapons, hunting trophies, souvenirs of the Murray clan, ethnographica, paintings, furniture, needlework etc, collected by the Murray family over many generations.

The castle also provides the garrison for the Atholl Highlanders
Atholl Highlanders
The Atholl Highlanders is a Scottish infantry regiment. Based in Blair Atholl, the regiment is not part of the British Army. Instead, the regiment is in the private employ of the Duke of Atholl, making it the United Kingdom's, and indeed Europe's, only legal private army.-77th Foot:The name Atholl...

, the private army of the Duke of Atholl, noted as the only legal private army in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The Castle and the Atholl Estates were used in the 2008 reality television series Conquer the Castle
Conquer the Castle
Conquer the Castle is a British reality TV series filmed in Scotland, and broadcast on STV.The weekly 12-part series followed six devoted city slickers as they swapped their fast-paced metropolitan lives for a crash course in Scottish country living....

.

Diana’s Grove Grand Fir
Grand Fir
Abies grandis is a fir native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California of North America, occurring at altitudes of sea level to 1,800 m...

in the grounds of the castle, which has been measured at 62.7 metres (205.7 ft) is the third tallest tree in the United Kingdom.

On the night of 10 March 2011, a fire broke out at the clock tower of the castle, causing the tower's roof and second floor collapse into the first floor.

External links

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