The house was built for Sir Thomas and Mary Wedderspoon in 1902, a fact immortalised in stone above their bedroom.

The site however goes much further back. The house sits on an ancient mound that was dug by hand back in the 11th Century it was a very effective defensive design now known as Motte and Bailey. When you see the topography of Castleton you can clearly visualise the layout with the little wooden castle (Castle-ton) on top of the motte (mound) and the low ground, the Bailey which was tucked in around the motte providing shelter, community space and protection. The natural burn that runs past Castleton would have been breached to fill the ditch that encircles the whole land form, and access would have been via a bridge that could be easily defended.

There are 3 bridges that cross the Commerton Burn at Castleton, the most interesting is the old road bridge built in 1784. You can still see the date carved in the stone, look carefully at the picture below.

With the advent of the motor car, the old bridge that was only wide enough for a horse and cart, was replaced by the main A94 road. Today the bridge stands unchanged and undamaged in the field used only by whatever livestock is gently grazing there.

To put the old bridge in to context this is what was going on in 1784 when it was built...

King George III was on the throne and not yet mad
William Pitt the Younger was the new Prime Minister
Napoleon Bonaparte was only 15 years old
The French Revolution was still 5 years off
Bonnie Prince Charlie was in his early 60's and living quietly in Italy
Robert Burns hadn't yet written either Auld Lang Syne or Tamoshanter
ENJOY SOME MORE IMAGES FROM AROUND CASTLETON

Castleton of Eassie

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Glamis Castle is situated beside the village of Glamis in Angus, Scotland. It is the home of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and is open to the public.

Glamis Castle has been the home of the Lyon family since the 14th century, though the present building dates largely from the 17th century. Glamis was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, wife of King George VI. Their second daughter, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was born there.

The castle is protected as a category A listed building, and the grounds are included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.

lamis is set in the broad and fertile lowland valley of Strathmore, near Forfar, county town of Angus, which lies between the Sidlaw Hills to the south and the Grampian Mountains to the north, approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) inland from the North Sea. The estate surrounding the castle covers more than 57 square kilometres (14,000 acres) and, in addition to parks and gardens, produces several cash crops including lumber and beef. There are two streams running through the estate, one of them the Glamis Burn. An arboretum overlooking Glamis Burn features trees from all over the world, many of them rare and several hundred years old.

History
The vicinity of Glamis Castle has prehistoric traces; for example, a noted intricately carved Pictish stone known as the Eassie Stone was found in a creek-bed at the nearby village of Eassie.


Back of the castle

Rosa 'Glamis Castle', a rose was named after Glamis Castle by the English rosegrower David Austin
In 1034 King Malcolm II was murdered at Glamis, where there was a Royal Hunting Lodge. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (1603–06), the eponymous character resides at Glamis Castle, although the historical King Macbeth (d. 1057) had no connection to the castle.

By 1376 a castle had been built at Glamis, since in that year it was granted by King Robert II to Sir John Lyon, Thane of Glamis, husband of the king's daughter. Glamis has remained in the Lyon (later Bowes-Lyon) family since this time. The castle was rebuilt as an L-plan tower house in the early 15th century.

The title Lord Glamis was created in 1445 for Sir Patrick Lyon (1402–1459), grandson of Sir John. John Lyon, 6th Lord Glamis, married Janet Douglas, daughter of the Master of Angus, at a time when King James V was feuding with the Douglases. In December 1528 Janet was accused of treason for bringing supporters of the Earl of Angus to Edinburgh. She was then charged with poisoning her husband, Lord Glamis, who had died on 17 September 1528. Eventually, she was accused of witchcraft, and was burned at the stake at Edinburgh on 17 July 1537. James V subsequently seized Glamis, living there for some time.

In 1543 Glamis was returned to John Lyon, 7th Lord Glamis. In 1606, Patrick Lyon, 9th Lord Glamis, was created Earl of Kinghorne. He began major works on the castle, commemorated by the inscription "Built by Patrick, Lord Glamis, and D[ame] Anna Murray" on the central tower.The English architect Inigo Jones has traditionally been linked to the redesign of the castle, though Historic Scotland consider the King's Master Mason William Schaw a more likely candidate, due to the traditional Scottish style of the architecture.

During the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, soldiers were garrisoned at Glamis. In 1670 Patrick Lyon, 3rd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, returned to the castle and found it uninhabitable. Restorations took place until 1689, including the creation of a major Baroque garden. John Lyon, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, succeeded in 1753, and in 1767 he married Mary Eleanor Bowes, heiress to a coal-mining fortune. He set about improving the grounds of the castle in the picturesque style in the 1770s. The south-west wing was rebuilt after a fire in the early 19th century. In the 1920s a huge fireplace from Gibside, the Bowes-Lyon estate near Gateshead, was removed and placed in Glamis' Billiard Room. The fireplace displays the coat of arms of the Blakiston family; Gibside heiress Elizabeth Blakiston had married Sir William Bowes. Several interiors, including the Dining Room, also date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1900, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was born, the youngest daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his wife, Cecilia (née Cavendish-Bentinck). She spent much of her childhood at Glamis, which was used during the First World War, as a military hospital. She was particularly instrumental in organising the rescue of the castle's contents during a serious fire on 16 September 1916. On 26 April 1923 she married Prince Albert, Duke of York, second son of King George V, at Westminster Abbey. Their second daughter, Princess Margaret, was born at Glamis Castle in 1930.

Since 1987 an illustration of the castle has featured on the reverse side of ten pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.[9] Glamis is currently the home of Simon Bowes-Lyon, 19th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, who succeeded to the earldom in 2016.

Glamis Castle

Hatton Castle is almost three miles (4.8 km) south-east of Turriff, Aberdeenshire in the north-east of Scotland. Formerly known as Balquholly Castle, sometimes spelt as Balquollie, it was renamed in 1814. The 17,994 square feet (1,671.7 m2) mansion was designated a category A listed building in 1972; the gardens are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.

In the early 14th century Robert the Bruce granted the lands, then known as Loscraigie, to Patrick de Monte Alto. Mowat is the anglicisation of de Monte Alto. The Balquholly name was adopted some time before the 16th century. Records indicate there was a castle (spelt Balquholy) on the lands in the early 1500s, but it is likely it may have an earlier date. Purchased by Alexander Duff of Hatton in 1709 – although the contracts were not finalised until 1729 – ownership has remained with members of the family into the 21st century.

Mansion house
Construction of the present castellated mansion began in 1812 and was completed by 1814; it was at this time the name was changed to Hatton Castle. It has a round tower at each corner and incorporates sections of the ancient building. The stone-built mansion has three storeys plus a basement and an attic. A wine cellar and gun room are in the basement. The ground floor hall has a glass cupola set above a stone staircase that provides access to the first floor. There are two bedrooms on the first floor and seven on the second floor; the attic contains four additional bedrooms, a bathroom and storage space.

The mansion was designated a category A listed building by Historic Scotland on 28 November 1972. The gardens are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland and assessed under the historical and architectural sections as outstanding.

Hatton Castle

Cortachy Castle is a castellated mansion House at Cortachy, Angus, Scotland, some four miles north of Kirriemuir. The present building dates from the 15th century, preceded by an earlier structure that was owned by the Earls of Strathearn. It was acquired by the Ogilvies in 1473 and substantively modified in the 17th and 19th centuries. In 1820 it was "romanticised", as was the fashion of the day, by the addition of crenellations, plus other alterations by R & R Dickson. Part of the building was damaged by fire in 1883 and it was extensively rebuilt in the following two years by Kinnear & Peddie.

Cortachy Castle is a Category B listed building.

The castle is said to be haunted by the spirit of a drummer.

Cortachy Castle

Airlie Castle is a mansion house in the parish of Airlie, Angus, near the junction of the Isla and Melgund rivers, 9 kilometres west of Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland. A castle was built on the site in c. 1432 and was burnt out in 1640, with a mansion house built incorporating and on top of some of the ruins in c. 1792–93, and occupied roday.

King James I of Scotland granted lands to Walter Ogilvy of Lintrathen, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, in 1432. Walter Ogilvy then built the castle at the confluence of the River Isla and the Melgam Water. It sits on a raised position with a steep 400ft drop to the rivers below. A moat on the eastern approach further protected the castle. It became a stronghold and chief residence of the Ogilvies.

The castle consisted of a rectangular courtyard with walls three meters thick. The east wall of the original courtyard still stands; it is about 36 metres long and 9 metres tall. An entrance gateway that now has a square tower on it sits at the north end of this wall, though the tower was built later than the original courtyard.

In 1639 at York Charles I created James Ogilvy the 1st Earl of Airlie. James refused to sign the National Covenant. Furthermore, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms the Ogilvies supported King Charles I and the Royalist cause. Parliamentarian troops under the command of Archibald Campbell, 8th Earl of Argyll destroyed the castle in 1640; the ballad "The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie" describes the incident. Campbell also burnt the Ogilvies's castles at Craig and Forter.

The Ogilvies did not rebuild Airlie Castle. James Ogilvy (d. 1731), grandson of the first Earl, took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715 and was attainted; consequently on his father's death in 1717 he was not allowed to succeed to the earldom, although he was pardoned in 1725. George II confiscated the castle.

In 1778 David Ogilvy too received a pardon and he returned to Scotland from exile in Versailles. He had a new mansion built between 1792 and 1793 that incorporated the parts of the Castle that were still standing.

Airlie Castle

Dudhope Castle is an extended late medieval tower house located on the southern face of Dundee Law in Dundee, Scotland.

The castle was originally built in the late 13th century by the Scrymageour family, with the original castle being a smaller tower house. This was replaced around 1460, and then further extended in 1580 to its current L-plan structure with additional circular "angle" towers, although these were demolished in the 18th century.

On the death in 1668 of John Scrimgeour, 13th (or 14th) Constable, and first Earl of Dundee, King Charles II ignored the existence of the rightful heir, John Scrimgeour of Kirkton, and made a grant of Dudhope Castle and the office of Constable to Charles Maitland, a younger brother of the Earl of Lauderdale.

Later, when in financial difficulty, Maitland sold Dudhope Castle in 1684 to John Graham of Claverhouse, better known to most as "Bonnie Dundee". It was from Dudhope Castle that he departed for Killiecrankie in 1689; the victory which resulted in his death. In 1694, the King therefore made a grant of Dudhope Castle to Archibald Douglas. The Douglas family were thus the last family of occupants of the castle as this continued until about 1790. The history of Dudhope and the Constables are therefore inextricably interwoven with the history of Dundee. In fact, the two are inseparable. The office of Constable and occupancy of Dudhope Castle was held by four different families, as above, of which the Scrymgeours held the post for some 370 years.

The Douglas family occupied Dudhope Castle from 1694 until circa 1790. In 1792 the castle was rented in an attempt to use it as a woollen factory, although the plan never came to fruition. In 1795 the park and the grounds were leased to the Board of Ordnance, who used Dudhope as a barracks for 95 years, from 1796 to 1879. Additional buildings were constructed, including a hospital, officers quarters, stables and guard-rooms. The castle building itself was used as accommodation for 400 soldiers. The Board of Ordnance finally abandoned the castle in 1881.

In 1854 the town council of Dundee acquired a sub-lease on the castle grounds, for use as recreational facilities. The lease ran for 35½ years for an annual rent of £25 until 1 November 1890. At this time the Earl of Home had intended to develop the grounds into terraced housing.

Instead the council acquired the grounds for £31,700, raising £20,000 itself and the remaining being raised from generous citizens by Lord Provost Mathewson. The grounds were opened as a park on 28 September 1895 by Sir James Low.

The building was later occupied by the Ministry of Works and was used as a military barracks during both the 1914–18 war and the 1939–45 war. It then passed to the corporation of Dundee who made an attempt to demolish the castle in 1958. In the years 1985 to 1988 the castle was redeveloped and is now in use as offices, a conference centre as well as housing the University of Abertay Dundee's Dundee Business School. During restoration, one of the main rooms was designated as the Scrimgeour room. It is furnished with wall hangings pertinent to the Scrimgeours and the drapes on the windows are made from material in the Scrimgeour tartan as arranged by the Scrimgeour Clan Association that was officially organized on 5 June 1971. In March 1998 a special dinner was held by the Clan Association in memory of the 700th anniversary of a charter to the Scrimgeours signed by William Wallace on 29 March 1298 and later reaffirmed in another charter signed by Robert the Bruce on 5 December of that same year.

A time gun was formerly located in the grounds of the castle and fired daily at 1pm. It ceased to be used in 1916 so as not do disturb patients at the nearby Dundee Royal Infirmary who were suffering from shell-shock.

Dudhope Castle

Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland. The name is applied both to a ruined 17th-century castle, as well as the 19th-century mansion house 130m to the west.

The estate was the property of the Lindsay Earls of Crawford from 1375, who built the now-ruined castle. David Lindsay, 10th Earl of Crawford, married Margaret, the daughter of Cardinal David Beaton, at Finavon in 1546.

Extravagance ruined the Crawford fortunes, and in 1625 the barony of Finavon was disposed of by a forced sale to Alexander Lindsay, 2nd Lord Spynie. It passed through the Carnegie family, the Gordon Earls of Aboyne and the Gardynes.

In 1843 the Castle was bought by Thomas Gardyne of Middleton. Through an 18th-century marriage he came of the old Lindsay stock. His descendant, Lieutenant-Colonel Alan David Greenhill Gardyne died in 1953, leaving the estate to a daughter, Mrs Susan Mazur.

The castle
The castle was an L-plan tower-house of five storeys, with a garret and a courtyard. The tower visible today dates from about 1600. Excavations have revealed that the tower is an adjunct tacked onto the north-east corner of a much older, more extensive structure.

The house
The house is a Scottish baronial style mansion built in 1865 for the then laird, David Greenhill Gardyne, by Messrs Carver and Symon of Arbroath. Part of the castle is now let as holiday accommodation.

Finavon Castle

Claypotts Castle is a late medieval castle in the suburban West Ferry area of Dundee, Scotland. It is one of the best-preserved examples of a 16th-century Z-plan tower house in Scotland. Now surrounded by modern housing, the castle is maintained as an Ancient Monument by Historic Scotland.  At present, it is open to the public on only a small number of days each year.

he castle was originally built by John Strachan around 1569–1588 according to dates inscribed on stones that make up parts of the castle, which make its construction longer than usual for such a small building. The land on which the castle was built was originally leased by the Strachan family from the Tironensian Abbey of Lindores starting in the early 16th century.

In 1601 the Strachan family sold the castle to Sir William Graham of Ballunie who later sold it to Sir William Graham of Claverhouse. The castle became the property of the crown in 1689 after the death of the then current owner Viscount Dundee John Graham of Claverhouse at the battle of Killiecrankie. In 1694 the castle was given to James Douglas, 2nd Marquess of Douglas. The castle later became the property of his son the Duke of Douglas and after his death in 1761 became the subject of a legal battle for the next eight years until the courts ruled Archibald Douglas to be heir. Ownership later passed to the 13th Earl of Home through marriage who later gave the castle to the state in 1926. It is now in the care of Historic Scotland.

There is a legend that the castle was once home to an industrious brownie who helped the servants with their work, but that he left in disgust because of a lazy kitchen maid.

Architecture
The castle consists of projecting towers at opposite sides of a rectangular main block, known as a Z-plan tower house. This was a popular design in the 16th century and allowed defenders to fire along the faces of the main block from both towers, although it is unlikely that the castle would have had much of a defensive role given its domestic scale.

Claypotts Castle

Broughty Castle is a historic castle on the banks of the river Tay in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland. It was completed around 1495, although the site was earlier fortified in 1454 when George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus received permission to build on the site. His son Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus was coerced into ceding the castle to the crown. The main tower house forming the centre of the castle with four floors was built by Andrew, 2nd Lord Gray who was granted the castle in 1490.

The Rough Wooing
The castle saw military action during the 16th-century War of the Rough Wooing. After the battle of Pinkie in September 1547 it was surrendered by purchase to the English by its owner, Lord Gray of Foulis. A messenger from the castle, Rinyon (Ninian) Cockburn, who spoke to the English supreme commander the Duke of Somerset before the castle was rendered was given a £4 reward. The Scottish keeper, Henry Durham, was rewarded with an English pension, income from the fishing, and an import/export licence. Durham later lent the English commander £138.

Soon after taking possession, the English garrison further fortified Broughty by building a ditch across the landward side of the castle's promontory. Edward Clinton began the refortification, with the advice of an Italian engineer, Master John Rossetti, and left 100 men guarded by three ships. The garrison was first led by Sir Andrew Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland's brother, who hoped to distribute Tyndale's Bible in Dundee.

Andrew Dudley wrote in October 1547 that; "never had a man had so weak a company of soldiers given to drinking, eating and slothfulness," although, "the house stands well." The town of Dundee agreed to support the garrison and resist the Governor of Scotland, Regent Arran on 27 October 1547. The Constable of Dundee, John Scrimgeour, and the baillies and council signed the agreement, although under the duress of Dudley's two gunships.

The Earl of Argyll tried to capture the castle on 22 November 1547 and again in January 1548 with 150 men led by the soldier Duncan Dundas, without success. Thomas Wyndham brought two more ships in December 1547 and burnt Balmerino Abbey on Christmas Day. On 12 January 1548, one hundred matchlock guns were delivered from Berwick, with powder flasks, matches, touch-boxes, and bullet moulds.

Broughty Castle

Guthrie Castle is a castle and country house in Angus, Scotland. It is located in the village of Guthrie, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Forfar, and 29 kilometres (18 mi) north-east of Dundee. The castle dates back to the 15th century, although much of the present building is of 19th-century origin. It is now a private house.

Guthrie Castle comprises a tower house, originally built by Sir David Guthrie (1435–1500), Treasurer and Lord Justice-General of Scotland, in 1468. The Guthrie family later built a house beside the tower. In 1848, the two were linked by a baronial style expansion, to designs by David Bryce. The historic keep remained in the Guthrie family until 1983, with the death of Colonel Ivan Guthrie.

Restoration
In 1984 Guthrie Castle was purchased by Daniel S. Peña, Sr., an American businessman. Peña restored the castle to its 19th-century condition, and built a golf course within the estate in 1994/95. In 2003, the castle and its grounds were opened to the public, for wedding parties, corporate functions and for group bookings. But in the year 2017, the owners have decided that it will no longer be open to the public and will remain a private house.

Guthrie Castle

Melgund Castle, lying around 2 kilometres due east of Aberlemno in Angus, Scotland, is a restored 16th-century house which today serves as a private residence.

The castle is generally said to have been built in 1543 on the orders of Cardinal David Beaton as a home for himself and his mistress, Margaret Ogilvie. However, Charles McKean has argued that the work of the 1540s was a re-modelling of an earlier building. It much later passed by marriage to the Earls of Minto, who were granted the title Viscounts Melgund, presently used by the heir to the earldom. The building has been made to look like a 16th-century wing added to a late 15th-century tower although in fact it appears to be all mid 16th century. Archaeological investigations were carried out at the castle between 1990 and 1996. The castle was long in a semi-ruined state, and lacking a roof, until restored by Benjamin Tindall Architects.