Mains Castle is a 16th-century castle in 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...

, 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 consists of several buildings surrounding a courtyard, although several of the original western buildings no longer exist. The northern and eastern buildings are where the family would have lived, with the servants occupying the southern quarters. The castle also has a large, six-floor, square 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...

 with dressed cornerstones, which is typical of 16th-century construction.

The castle is located in Dundee's Caird Park to the north of the city overlooking the Dichty valley and adjacent to a small stream known as the Gelly Burn. On the opposite side of the burn is located the mausoleum of the Graham family and the Main's cemetery, which was formerly the site of the district's kirk

Kirk

Kirk can mean "church" in general or the Church of Scotland in particular. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.-Basic meaning and etymology:...

.

The castle and its grounds was the subject of a poem by Dundee poet William McGonagall in his work The Castle of Mains.

History

The castle is believed to have been built in 1562 by Sir David Graham, nephew of Cardinal Beaton. A keystone in the western gateway bears this date as well as the initials DG and DMO for David Graham and Dame Margaret Ogilvy. A horizontal beam in one of the eastern courtyard doors bears a date of 1582, indicating a possible completion date. The castle was the seat of the Grahams of Fintry

Grahams of Fintry

The Grahams of Fintry were a sept of the lowland Clan Graham based in the county of Angus Scotland.-Origins:The family were descended from Sir William Graham lord of Kincadaine and his wife Lady Mary Stewart m. 1406, daughter of King James III of Scotland...

 and remained so until the 19th century when Robert Graham of Fintry sold the lands to David Erskine

David Erskine, 2nd Baron Erskine

David Montagu Erskine, 2nd Baron Erskine was a British diplomat and politician.-Background and education:...

, with the condition that his family could retain the territorial title of Graham of Fintry and that the estate revert to the older name of Lumlathen or Linlathen. The estate was later sold by Shipley Gordon Stuart Erskine to James Key Caird

James Key Caird

Sir James Key Caird, 1st Baronet was a Scottish jute baron and mathematician. He was one of the city's most successful entrepreneurs, who used the latest technology in his Ashton and Craigie Mills. James Caird was born in Dundee, and was the son of Edward Caird who had founded the firm of Caird ...

, who gifted the castle and its lands to the town council as a site for a public park in 1913. The park was later opened in 1923 by Caird's half sister Mrs Marryat. The castle was renovated in the 1980s through a government scheme for the unemployed, as many of the buildings had become roofless.

Mains Castle, which is now under new ownership, is available for religious and civil weddings in Dundee.

External links

• Official website