The Entrance Hall

The visitor enters by the front door. The Entrance Hall was built in 1872 by the 7th Duke. On the south wall hangs a portrait of the 10th Duke by Carlos Sancha presented to him in 1982 to mark his 25 years as Duke. Here is arranged a large collection of arms, rifles, targes, swords, cross-bows, and powder horns. The oak hall chairs with the painted coronet and thistle were supplied by the London maker Cobb in 1751. On the table facing the entrance on the left is a framed portion of the flooring from the top of Cumming's Tower with the marks of the red-hot shot fired at the roof when Lord George Murray besieged the Castle in 1746. Tilt, the stuffed stag, was the best of the five which were kept in the parks in the mid-19th century. Their horns were collected each year when they shed them and mounted on the skulls of other stags. These heads can be seen in the ground-floor passage which is next entered and is part of the original castle built by Cumming.