Tullibardine Castle was a castle located in the village of Tullibardine, north of Auchterarder in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
History The lands of Tullibardine passed to the Murray family after Ada de Strathearn, the wife of William Murray, was granted the other moiety of Tullibardine from her aunty. The castle was built in the late 13th to early 14th century, with likely its first custodian being David Murray, Baron of Tullibardine.Sharpe's Peerage of the British Empire exhibiting its present state and deducing the existing descents from the ancient nobility of England, Scotland and Ireland, Volume 1, John Sharpe (1830)
One early Murray owner of the castle was said to have had seventeen sons. The king thought he had broken the law by having an armed retinue. The brothers were said to have slept in a large round room in the castle, their heads placed against a central pillar.Chronicles of Strathearn (Crieff, 1896), p. 288.
The outline of the ship, the Great Michael, commissioned by James IV, was commemorated by a plantation of hawthorn hedges at Tullibardine. This could be seen in the 1570s, according to a chronicle writer, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie. The probable site of this garden feature can be seen in aerial photographs about 100 metres north of the castle site.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh, 2015), pp. 87-9.
Mary, Queen of Scots, visited William Murray of Tullibardine at the castle on 16 November 1562,Edward Furgol, 'Scottish Itinerary of Mary Queen of Scots, 1542-8 and 1561-8', PSAS, 117 (1987), microfiche, scanned and following the baptism of Prince James, on 31 December 1566 accompanied, it was said, by the Earl of Bothwell.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI: A Long Apprenticeship, 1566–1585 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 32: George Chalmers, Life of Mary Queen of Scots, vol. 1 (London, 1818), p. 199: David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), p. 430.Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1842), p. 328.Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 135. The indictment or "Book of Articles" written by her enemies in 1568 says, in the Scots language, "at Tullibardin (and at Drymen, Drummond Castle) sche abaid the spece of aucht dayis using that fylthines almoist without cloik or respect of schame or honestie".R. H. Mahon, The indictment of Mary Queen of Scots (Cambridge, 1923), pp. 39, 51
Letters of Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar and William Stewart of Grandtully suggest a meeting at Tullibardine Castle on 28 July 1570 was an attempt at reconciliation during the Marian Civil War.Jane Dawson, Clan Campbell Letters (Edinburgh: SHS, 1997), pp. 168, 174. Regent Morton came to Tullibardine in September 1575.George R. Hewitt, Scotland under Morton (John Donald, 1982), p. 43.
James VI and the masque at Tullibardine James VI often visited John Murray, 1st Earl of Tullibardine, whose roles at court included Master of the Household.Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre, 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 116-117. He made plans to visit Tullibardine on 23 May 1580 as part of his first progress in Scotland.Registrum Honoris de Morton: Original Papers of the Earls of Morton, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 122.
James was entertained at Tullibardine by a piper and a man playing the swasche, a kind of drum, in July 1582. James came from Huntingtower Castle, then known as Ruthven Castle in August 1584, when there was a plague scare in Perth.Chronicles of Strathearn (Crieff, 1896), p. 290, citing David Moysie: National Records of Scotland E22/5 p. 120.
King James, possibly with Anne of Denmark,James Clark, Genealogical collections concerning families in Scotland by Walter Macfarlane (Edinburgh, SHS, 1900), p. 113. attended the wedding of Lilias Murray and John Grant of Freuchie on 21 June 1591 at Tullibardine.Maria Hayward, Stuart Style (Yale, 2020), p. 59: W. Boyd & H. Meikle, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 533–5. James VI, who had taken dancing lessons in 1580,Amy Blakeway, 'James VI and the Earl of Morton', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), p. 21. performed in a masque, dancing with his valet, probably John Wemyss of Logie.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2023), p. 169: Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 135. They wore Venetian carnival masks and helmets with red and pink taffeta costumes.Michael Pearce, "Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland", The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 149 The original account of fabrics supplied to the king's tailor, written in the Scots language, includes:Item, the 18 of June deliverit to Allexander Miller 8 ellis of incarnedin Spainze (Spanish) taffetye to be ane stand of maskerie clayths to his majestie att the mariage of the laird of Tillebarne dochter att £7 the elle, £56.Item, 8 elles of incarnet taffetie to be ane stand of maskerye clayths to hym that wes his majesties vallet att thatt tyme, £24.Item, 2 wenyss maskis, the ane to his majestie, the uthir to his vallet, £6.Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 116–118REED project transcriptions from Scottish exchequer records (NRS E21/67, E35/13, E35/14); 1588-1590, 1590-1592, Sarah Carpenter
A "Venice mask" was a kind of vizard possibly made using an Italian technique.Barbara Ravelhofer, The Early Stuart Masque (Oxford, 2006), p. 175. The costumes of the King and the valet were embellished with gold "tock", a tinsel fabric,Hermann W. Haller, John Florio: A Worlde of Wordes (University of Toronto, 2013), p. 728, "toccadoro". and lined with yellow canvas.Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 113, 115, 117.
Although some contemporaries, Albert Fontenay and later Théodore de Mayerne, wrote that James was disinclined or unable to dance,Clare Jackson, The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I (Allen Lane, 2025), p. 187. he had been given dance lessons throughout his childhood.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), pp. 28, 49: Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stuart: The Regime Change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 37. James VI returned from Tullibardine after hearing that the Earl of Bothwell had escaped from Edinburgh Castle.James Dennistoun, Memoirs of the Affairs of the Scotland by David Moysie (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1830), p. 86.
James VI was at Tullibardine again for New Year in 1592.HMC 6th Report: Menzies (London, 1877), p. 693. He stayed again on 7 January 1594,David Moysie, Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 112. and spent the first week of January 1598 at the castle.HMC Report on the manuscripts of Colonel David Milne Home of Wedderburn castle (London, 1892), p. 67.
The castle was demolished in 1883.
See also Tullibardine Chapel
References Coventry, Martin (2010). Castles of the Clans. Musselburgh : Goblinshead.