The Scottish Castle

Loretta reports:

Continuing the Illustrated Edition of Last Night’s Scandal…

We move on to Scotland, and Gorewood Castle.  Some years ago, I spent a few days (and sleepless nights*) at a wonderful castle in Scotland, which has a very interesting history.  Not just the history history—Mary Queen of Scots escaping from a high window, defying Cromwell and getting a big divot blown into one side of the castle, that sort of thing—but its history as a building.  It turned out that a great deal had been written about this place, and better yet, there were tons of old illustrations and floor plans and descriptions of its state in approximately the time of my story.


The place was Borthwick Castle, and after the usual artistic adjustments to suit my purposes, I turned it into Castle Horrid. 

One fabulous resource was The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the 12th to the 18th Century by David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross.  You can read the entry here.

This site, at the Mary Queen of Scots page, has lots of terrific pictures, particularly of the interior.  The photos are far more numerous and interesting than my own collection.

And of course there's Borthwick Castle's own site, which is both beautiful and informative.

In case you were wondering, we stayed in the Mary Queen of Scots room.  And yes, the staff regaled us with *ghost stories, and no, I could not understand what they were saying.