Castles are buildings that combine fortifications and residence, and many were built within the borders of modern Scotland. They arrived in Scotland with the introduction of feudalism in the twelfth century. Initially these were wooden motte-and-bailey constructions, but many were replaced by stone castles with a high curtain wall. During the Wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce pursued a policy of castle slighting. In the Late Middle Ages, new castles were built, some on a grander scale as "livery and maintenance" castles that could support a large garrison. Gunpowder weaponry led to the use of gun ports, platforms to mount guns and walls adapted to resist bombardment.
Many of the late Medieval castles built in the borders were in the form of tower houses, smaller pele towers or simpler bastle houses. From the fifteenth century there was a phase of Renaissance palace building, which restructured them as castle-type palaces, beginning at Linlithgow. Elements of Medieval castles, royal palaces and tower houses were used in the construction of Scots baronial estate houses, which were built largely for comfort, but with a castle-like appearance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the military significance of castles declined, but they increasingly became tourist attractions. Elements of the Scots Baronial style would be revived from the late eighteenth century and the trend would be confirmed in popularity by the rebuilding of Balmoral Castle in the nineteenth century and its adoption as a retreat by Queen Victoria. In the twentieth century there were only isolated examples of new castle-influenced houses. Many tower houses were renovated, and many castles were taken over by the National Trust for Scotland or Historic Scotland and are open to the public.
Middle Ages
Castles, in the sense of a fortified residence of a lord or noble, arrived in Scotland as a consequence of the centralising of royal authority in the twelfth century.G. G. Simpson and B. Webster, "Charter Evidence and the Distribution of Mottes in Scotland", in R. Liddiard, ed., Anglo-Norman Castles (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2003), , p. 225. Prior to the 1120s there is very little evidence of castles having existed in Scotland, which had remained less politically centralised than in England with the north still ruled by the kings of Norway.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , p. 11. David I of Scotland (r. 1124–53) spent time at the court of Henry I of England, becoming Earl of Huntingdon, and returned to Scotland with the intention of extending royal power across the country and modernising Scotland's military technology, including the introduction of castles.D. Carpenter, The Struggle for Mastery: The Penguin History of Britain 1066–1284 (London: Penguin, 2004), , p. 182. The Scottish king encouraged Norman and French nobles to settle in Scotland, introducing a feudal mode of landholding and the use of castles as a way of controlling the contested Scottish Lowlands. Historian Lise Hull has suggested that the creation of castles in Scotland was "less to do with conquest" and more to do with "establishing a governing system".L. Hull, Britain's Medieval Castles (London: Greenwood, 2006), , p. xxiv.
These were primarily wooden motte-and-bailey constructions, of a raised mount or motte, surmounted by a wooden tower and a larger adjacent enclosure or bailey, both usually surrounded by a fosse (a ditch) and palisade, and connected by a wooden bridge.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 21. They varied in size from the very large, such as the Bass of Inverurie, to more modest designs like Balmaclellan.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , p. 16. In England many of these constructions were converted into stone "keep-and-bailey" castles in the twelfth century, but in Scotland most of those that were in continued occupation became stone castles of "enceinte" from the thirteenth century, with a high embattled curtain wall.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 26. The need for thick and high walls for defence forced the use of economic building methods, often continuing the Scottish tradition of dry-stone rubble building, which were then covered with a lime render, or harled for weatherproofing and a uniform appearance.I. Maxwell, A History of Scotland's Masonry Construction in P. Wilson, ed., Building with Scottish Stone (Edinburgh: Arcamedia, 2005), , p. 24. In addition to the baronial castles there were royal castles, often larger and providing defence, lodging for the itinerant Scottish court and a local administrative center. By 1200 these included fortifications at Ayr and Berwick.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , p. 12. In Scotland Alexander II (r. 1198–1249) and Alexander III (1241–86) undertook a number of castle building projects in the modern style. Alexander III's early death sparked conflict in Scotland and English intervention under Edward I in 1296. The resulting Wars of Independence brought this phase of castle building to an end and began a new phase of siege warfare.
The first recorded siege in Scotland was the 1230 siege of Rothesay Castle where the besieging Norwegians were able to break down the relatively weak stone walls with axes after only three days. When Edward I invaded Scotland he brought with him the siege capabilities that had evolved south of the border, resulting in the rapid fall of major castles. Edinburgh Castle fell within three days, and Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Dunbar, Stirling, Lanark and Dumbarton castles all surrendered to the English king.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , p. 56. Subsequent English sieges, such as the attacks on Bothwell and Stirling, again used considerable resources including giant siege engines and extensive teams of miners and masons.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , pp. 58–9. As a result, Robert the Bruce (r. 1306–29) adopted a policy of castle destruction (known as slighting), rather than allow fortresses to be easily retaken and then held by the English, beginning with his own castles at Ayr and Dumfries,J. S. Hamilton, The Plantagenets: History of a Dynasty (London: Continuum, 2010), , p. 116.D. Cornell, "A Kingdom Cleared of Castles: the Role of the Castle in the Campaigns of Robert Bruce", The Scottish Historical Review 87 (224), pp. 233–257 (2008) and including Roxburgh and Edinburgh.D. Cornell, Bannockburn: the Triumph of Robert the Bruce (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2009), , p. 124. After the Wars of Independence, new castles began to be built, often on a grander scale as "livery and maintenance" castles, to house retained troops, like Tantallon, Lothian and Doune near Stirling, rebuilt for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany in the fourteenth century.
Early gunpowder weapons were introduced to Scotland by the 1330s.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , p. 76. The new technology began to be installed in Scottish castles by the 1380s, beginning with Edinburgh.C. J. Tabraham, Scotland's Castles (London: Batsford, 2005), , p. 148. In the fifteenth century, gunpowder weaponry fundamentally altered the nature of castle architecture. Existing castles were adapted to allow the use of the new weapons by the incorporation of "keyhole" gun ports, platforms to mount guns and walls that were adapted to resist bombardment. Ravenscraig, Kirkcaldy, begun about 1460, is probably the first castle in the British Isles to be built as an artillery fort, incorporating "D-shape" bastions that would better resist cannon fire and on which artillery could be mounted.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 27. It also used "letter box" gun-ports,P. Harrington, English Civil War Fortifications 1642–51 (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003), , p. 9. common in mainland Europe, although rarer in England, they rapidly spread across the kingdom. Scotland also led the way in adopting the new caponier design for castle ditches, as constructed at Craignethan Castle.D. J. C. King, The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History (London: Routledge, 1991), , p. 172.
Tower houses
The largest number of late Medieval fortifications in Scotland built by nobles, about 800,A. Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), , p. 26. were of the tower house design.S. Reid, Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans, 1450–1650 (Botley: Osprey, 2006), , p. 12.G. Stell, "War-damaged Castles: the evidence from Medieval Scotland", in Chateau Gaillard: Actes du colloque international de Graz (Autriche) (Caen, France: Publications du CRAHM, 2000), , p. 278. Smaller versions of tower houses in southern Scotland were known as peel towers, or pele houses.S. Toy, Castles: Their Construction and History (New York: Dover Publications, 1985), , p. 225. The defences of tower houses were primarily aimed to provide protection against smaller raiding parties and were not intended to put up significant opposition to an organised military assault. This has led historian Stuart Reid to characterise them as "defensible rather than defensive".S. Reid, Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans, 1450–1650 (Botley: Osprey, 2006), , pp. 12 and 46. They were typically a tall, square, stone-built, crenelated building. They were often also surrounded by a barmkyn or bawn, a walled courtyard designed to hold valuable animals securely, but not necessarily intended for serious defence.S. Reid, Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans, 1450–1650 (Botley: Osprey, 2006), , p. 33.S. Toy, Castles: Their Construction and History (New York: Dover Publications, Sidney, 1985), , p. 224. They were built extensively on both sides of the border with England from the fourteenth century. James IV's (1488–1513) forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles in 1494 led to an additional burst of tower building across the region.I. D. Whyte, and K. A. Whyte, The Changing Scottish Landscape, 1500–1800 (London: Routledge, 1991), , p. 76.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture: from the Renaissance to the Present Day. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002), , p. 6. A number were also built in Scottish towns.S. Reid, Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans, 1450–1650 (Botley: Osprey, 2006), , p. 21.
An option for small landholders and farmers was the bastle house, a form of fortified house that combined the functions of a tower house and a barmkyn. They were usually two-storey houses with the ground floor acting as a byre into which animals could be driven, while the living space on the upper floor could only be reached by a removable ladder. Most are within of the border and were built around the turn of the sixteenth century.K. Durham, Strongholds of the Border Reivers: Fortifications of the Anglo-Scottish Border 1296–1603 (Osprey Publishing, 2008), , pp. 29–30.
Renaissance palaces