Hatton Castle stands on the lower part of Hatton Hill

Hatton Hill

Hatton Hill is a mountain landform in Angus, Scotland and is the most easterly peak of the Sidlaw Hills. Hatton Castle stands on the flanks of Hatton Hill above the village of Newtyle....

, the most easterly of the Sidlaw Hills

Sidlaw Hills

The Sidlaws are a range of hills of volcanic origin in the counties of Perthshire and Angus in Scotland that extend for 30 miles from Kinnoull Hill, near Perth, northeast to Forfar. Law is a Lowland Scots word of Old English origin meaning a hill which rises sharply from the surrounding land...

, to the south of Newtyle

Newtyle

Newtyle is a village in the west of Angus, Scotland.It lies 11 miles to the north of Dundee in the south west of Strathmore, between Hatton Hill and Newtyle in the Sidlaws. The village sits on gently sloping ground with a northwest aspect. The main communication link is the B954 road...

 in Angus

Angus

Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...

, 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...

. The castle overlooks the wooded Den of Newtyle, and its views extend across Strathmore

Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross

Strathmore is a strath in east central Scotland running from northeast to southwest between the Grampian mountains and the Sidlaws....

 and include Ben Lawers

Ben Lawers

Ben Lawers is one of the highest mountains in the southern part of the Scottish Highlands. It lies to the north side of Loch Tay, and is the highest point of a long ridge that includes seven Munros. Ben Lawers was long thought to be over 4,000 ft in height; accurate measurement in the 1870s...

 and Schiehallion

Schiehallion

Schiehallion is a prominent mountain in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Schiehallion has a rich botanical life, interesting archaeology, and a unique place in scientific history for an 18th-century experiment in 'weighing the world'...

 as well as the Angus and Glenshee hills. The 16th century castle was originally built in a typical Scottish "Z plan

Z-plan castle

Z Plan is a form of castle design common in England and Scotland. The Z-plan castle has a strong central rectangular tower with smaller towers attached at diagonally opposite corners....

" tower house

Tower house

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation.-History:Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountain or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces...

 design, as a fortified country house or château

Château

A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...

. There was an earlier castle called Balcraig Castle which stood less than half a mile from the present building, also on Hatton Hill.

Etymology

The name "Hatton" was adopted from the farm nearby. "Hatton" is a contraction of Hall-toun, which in Scots

Scots language

Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...

 means the farm (or ferm toun) near the Hall (or Ha). Thus the Hall must have been there first, and the name "Hatton" actually refers to the adjacent farm, now known as Hatton Farm (the word farm is thus redundant, duplicating toun). Hatton Castle was probably originally called "Newtyle Castle", taking its name from the estate. In Scots, the word tyle means a roofing stone (not restricted to fired clay tiles as in English). There are brick and tile factories 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...

 near 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...

, but "Newtyle" most likely relates to the sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 quarried locally, and used extensively for building, dyking and roofing, as well as for carving into Pictish standing stones

Pictish stones

Pictish stones are monumental stelae found in Scotland, mostly north of the Clyde-Forth line. These stones are the most visible remaining evidence of the Picts and are thought to date from the 6th to 9th centuries, a period during which the Picts became Christianized...

 such as those preserved at the nearby Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum

Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum

The Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum is a permanent exhibition of 27 carved Pictish stones in the centre of the village of Meigle in eastern Scotland. It lies on the A94 road running from Coupar Angus to Forfar. The museum occupies the former parish school, built 1844. The collection of stones...

. The name Newtyle rather implies that there was another place where sandstone was quarried previously.

History

The earliest history of the general area demonstrates that Pict

PICT

PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics , and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw.The original version, PICT 1, was...

ish peoples inhabited the area. For example, discovery of the Eassie Stone

Eassie Stone

The Eassie Stone is a Class II Pictish stone at the village of Eassie, Angus, Scotland. The stone was found in Eassie burn in the late 18th century and now resides in a purpose-built perspex building in the ruined Eassie church.-Location:...

 in this region indicates sophisticated Pictish carvers who embraced Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 about the year 600 AD.

The lands were given to Sir William Olifard (8th chief) in 1317 by Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce's daughter, Elizabeth, married Sir William Olifard's son, Sir Walter Olifard, who also inherited the Newtyle estate. The castle was built in 1575, commissioned by Laurence, fourth Lord Oliphant

Lord Oliphant

Lord Oliphant is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It has been created twice; both creations are extinct. It was first created in 1456 for Laurence Oliphant, but this creation became extinct on the death of the fifth lord in 1631...

 (1527–1593). Hatton Castle is unusual in that it contains a scale and platt staircase incorporated into its original construction. Such a feature was normally only included in larger constructions. The 4th Lord Oliphant also considerably extended another of his many castles, Kellie Castle

Kellie Castle

Kellie Castle is a castle just outside Arncroach, about 5 kilometres north of Pittenweem in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland.-Early history:The earliest records of Kellie go back to 1150 where it is mentioned in a charter issued by King David I. The first known owner was Robert of London, the...

 in Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, which bears many similarities.

A variety of people lived in Hatton Castle after the Oliphants, including at least one bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

. It is recorded by Marian McNeill , quoting A. Hislop, Book of Scottish Anecdote, that the old Scots custom of 'compulsory hospitality' was demonstrated at Hatton Castle: "The Lords Oliphant used to keep a cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 pointed to the road near by their old castle, so as to compel the wayfarers to come in and be regaled". A cannon is still there today. Hatton was the home of the Masters of Oliphant rather than their fathers, who resided at Aberdalgie and Dupplin Castles, the principle family seats for four hundred and fifty years.

Hatton Castle was de-roofed in about 1720, after the 1715 Jacobite rising

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...

, when it was replaced by the Italian-style Belmont Castle in Meigle, which is now a Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

 residential home. Hatton Castle gradually became encrusted by ivy and a home to pigeons and jackdaw

Jackdaw

The Jackdaw , sometimes known as the Eurasian Jackdaw, European Jackdaw or Western Jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa, it is mostly sedentary, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in winter. Four subspecies are...

s, until it was sold by the Kinpurnie Estate for reconstruction. This was done faithfully, initially by Roderick Oliphant of Oliphant, yr and his brother Richard Oliphant of that Ilk, the 34th chief with help from Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...

, so its charm remains much as it was in 1575, including glass hand-made in Edinburgh, in the leaded windows. Under-floor heating was installed (during the reconstruction) to avoid the sight of radiators. The exterior is harl

Harl

Harling is a Scottish term describing an exterior building surfacing technique. The theory of harling is to produce a long-lasting weatherproof shield for a stone building. A pigment can be embedded in the harled material, thus obviating the need for repainting...

ed with the traditional pinkish lime-based hand-daub.

It still has the strong room which, in ancient times, would have served as a bank for valuables for local people - one of the functions of a Hall. There is a 'priest hole

Priest hole

"Priest hole" is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558....

' in what was originally the laird's bedroom. Not so much for priests, one suspects, as for young ladies who might have needed a secret exit route. Hatton Castle has an interesting Great Hall, almost a double-cube measuring 34x17x17 feet, which has stunning acoustics. As in the 16th century, music is again played most days in the Great Hall, and some memorable dances and concerts have been held. In 2007, Hatton Castle hosted the first ever performance in Europe of a Japanese biwa

Biwa

The is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is the chosen instrument of Benten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry, and education in Japanese Shinto....

 and chant group, supported by the Scottish harp duo Sileas

Sileas

Síleas is a Scottish harp duo. Patsy Seddon plays electric harp and gut-strung harp, and Mary Macmaster plays electric harp and metal-strung harp. Together they make up part of the all-women folk band The Poozies....

. Hatton Castle is now a family home, and the present owners have continued the restoration, aided by specialist castle-restorer Gordon Matthew of Midmar.

Gardens

No record exists of the gardens of Hatton Castle, but a house of this scale would certainly have had fine gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries. The buildings of Hatton Farm probably stand on what was originally a garden to the south of Hatton Castle. Until the 1990s when the current owner took it on, Hatton Castle stood in a gently sloping field full of sheep, cattle and a gaggle of geese from the adjacent curling

Curling

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

 pond. Sir James Cayzer, from the neighbouring Kinpurnie Estate planted standard trees in the surrounding parkland, and a garden is now emerging for Hatton Castle, featuring dry-stane dyking up to three metres high. This is the work of master-dyker Duncan Armstrong. An orchard of ancient Scottish apple varieties has been planted, as well as mulberry

Mulberry

Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....

 trees, and the sunken vegetable garden contains fig trees and artichokes. The eastern boundary of the garden of Hatton Castle is the Dundee and Newtyle Railway

Dundee and Newtyle Railway

The Dundee and Newtyle Railway opened in 1831 and was the first railway in the north of Scotland. It was built to carry goods from Strathmore to the port of Dundee and was chartered with an Act of Parliament that received royal assent in 26 May 1826 and opened in 1831. The railway originally ran...

, which was the first railway line to open in Scotland. It was built to transport flowers grown in Newtyle to Dundee and thence by ship to Edinburgh. The 'bulb factory' was adjacent to Newtyle station, which still exists.