Castle Huntly sits approximately seven miles west of Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

 in the Carse of Gowrie

Carse of Gowrie

The Carse of Gowrie consists of a stretch of low-lying country in the southern part of Gowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It stretches for about 20 miles along the north shore of the Firth of Tay between Perth and Dundee. The area offers high quality agricultural land and is well known as a major...

, Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross is one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth is the administrative centre...

, 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 situated close to the shore of the Firth of Tay

Firth of Tay

The Firth of Tay is a firth in Scotland between the council areas of Fife, Perth and Kinross, the City of Dundee and Angus, into which Scotland's largest river in terms of flow, the River Tay, empties....

 and can be seen from the main road linking Dundee and Perth

Perth, Scotland

Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...

. The castle sits on top of a rocky outcrop surrounded by what is now farmland. In ancient times this land was marshy wilderness and the decision to locate the castle on the rock may have been taken with a view to the castle's defensive position in mind.

History

Castle Huntly was built around 1452 by Baron Gray of Fowlis

Andrew Gray, 1st Lord Gray

Andrew Gray, 1st Lord Gray was a Scottish nobleman, politician and diplomat. He was succeeded to the title by his grandson.-Biography:He was the only son of Sir Andrew Gray Andrew Gray, 1st Lord Gray (c. 1390 – 1469) was a Scottish nobleman, politician and diplomat. He was succeeded to the title...

 under licence from James II of Scotland

James II of Scotland

James II reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death.He was the son of James I, King of Scots, and Joan Beaufort...

. The castle changed hands in 1614 when it was acquired by the then Earl of Strathmore who changed its name to Castle Lyon. In the 1770s, the castle was sold by the widow of the 7th Earl of Strathmore to George Paterson of the East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 who also changed the name back to Castle Huntly. The castle left the hands of the Paterson family in 1946 after the death of Colonel Adrian Gordon Paterson when his wife sold the castle to the government. In 1947, the castle was refurbished and became a borstal

Borstal

A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court...

, then a young offenders' institution before becoming an open prison for adult male prisoners. It is now known as HMP Castle Huntly and is the only open prison

Open prison

An open prison is an informal description applied to any penal establishment in which the prisoners are trusted to serve their sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and so do not need to be locked up in prison cells...

 in Scotland. Most prisoners at the establishment are low risk ones serving short sentences of up to two years although some are long sentence prisoners approaching the end of their sentences.

The White Lady and other stories

The castle is said to be haunted by a White Lady, a young woman dressed in flowing white robes. There are various stories concerning her history, one of which is that she was a daughter of the Lyon family who occupied the castle in the 17th century. She allegedly began an affair with a manservant at the castle, and when their relationship was discovered, was banished to a bedroom high up in the tower overlooking the battlements. Unable to endure her suffering, she threw herself (or was she pushed?) to her death from the tower. The ghost of the White Lady has been seen a number of times over the years, often in the grounds surrounding the castle at night. She has also been seen in the bedroom in which she was imprisoned. The families that claim to have seen her report that she does not seem to cause fear and appears harmless.

A second ghost who is claimed to haunt the castle is that of a young boy dressed in a double-breasted sailing jacket. He has been seen in the room from which the White Lady is said to have jumped and there is speculation that he may be the son of Colonel Adrian Gordon Paterson. The Colonel's only son Richard drowned in 1939 in a yachting accident on the River Tay

River Tay

The River Tay is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in the United Kingdom. The Tay originates in western Scotland on the slopes of Ben Lui , then flows easterly across the Highlands, through Loch Dochhart, Loch Lubhair and Loch Tay, then continues east through Strathtay , in...

. It is interesting that he should appear in the room occupied by the White Lady and it has been suggested that the presence of her ghost has somehow "tempered" the room so that other spirits can more easily appear there.