History and Occupants

The ancient home and fortress of the Earls and Dukes of Atholl, situated in the wide Strath of Garry, commands a strategical position on the main route through the central Highlands. It lies on the northern side of the Perth-Inverness road in a wild and romantic setting of forest-clad mountains and picturesque rivers. About a mile to the east, the Tilt, now crossed by the main road near the modern village of Blair Atholl, joins the Garry on its south-easterly course to the Pass of Killiecrankie three miles away. The Banvie burn, which runs in front of the castle, tumbles through its narrow glen among giant larches, Scots firs, beeches and colourful rhododendrons.

The approach from the main road at Blair Atholl is through a great avenue of lime trees which leads the visitor to the white-harled facade of the east front of the castle which, during its existence of nearly seven hundred years, has known the splendour of royal visitations, submitted to occupation by opposing forces on no less than four occasions, has suffered siege and partial destruction, and changed its architectural appearance to suit the tastes of many generations.

In 1269 David, the Crusader Earl of Atholl, complained to King Alexander III that during his absence in England John Comyn or Cumming of Badenoch (the grandfather of Robert Bruce's victim) had made an incursion into Atholl and had begun building a castle at Blair. The main tower of the Castle is traditionally known as Cumming's Tower.

The last of the Earls of Atholl of the Royal Celtic line had died before 1211, and the earldom had passed through the female line to David of Strathbogie whose line was forfeited for opposing Bruce.

After being held by King Robert II and his son Walter, the earldom was finally conferred, in 1457, on King James II's maternal half-brother, Sir John Stewart of Balvenie, the ancestor of the present Atholl family. When the 1st Earl of the new line was ordered to quell the insurrection of John Macdonald of the Isles, he received from James III the injunction Furth Fortune and Fill the Fetters which has since remained the family motto. The male line of the 1st Earl came to an end in 1595, and until 1625 the earldom was held by the heirs male of his brother. But in 1629 it was given to John Murray, Master of Tullibardine, whose mother, Lady Dorothea Stewart, had been heiress of the 5th Earl of Atholl. During the Civil Wars this earl was an ardent Royalist, but he died in 1642, and ten years later the castle was captured and held by Cromwell's troops until the Restoration. It was through the intervention of his son, the first Marquis of Atholl, that the harsh treatment meted out to the Covenanters by Lauderdale was mitigated by Royal Command. The Marquis had married Lady Amelia Stanley, daughter of the 7th Earl of Derby, and it is probable that through her influence he became a supporter of William of Orange, who was her cousin. Consequently the Athollmen, who had followed Montrose in 1644, were not present at the Battle of Killiecrankie, when in 1689 Dundee made his last stand for King James. In 1703, shortly after the death of the Marquis, his son the 2nd Marquis was created first Duke of Atholl, by Queen Anne. The new Duke, whose protests on the occasion of the Massacre of Glencoe led to his appointment as a Commissioner to enquire into this outrage, was later a strong opponent of the Union with England until he had obtained better terms for Scotland. In his loyalty to the government against the Jacobites in 1715 he had been supported by his second surviving son, Lord James, whose elder brother William, Marquis of Tullibardine, with Lord Charles and Lord George, had joined the Stewart cause. Lord James, who succeeded him as 2nd Duke, started on an ambitious scheme of creating a new park and making extensive alterations to the castle. This work was interrupted by the Jacobite revolt in 1745 when Prince Charles Edward, accompanied by the exiled Marquis of Tullibardine, landed at Glenfinnan and, marching south with his Highland army, stayed a few days at Blair Castle. When this old stronghold was subsequently occupied by Hanoverian troops, Lord George Murray, who had again joined the Jacobites, arrived with his 'Atholl Brigated' and laid siege to his old home, thus giving it the distinction of being the last castle in the British Isles to be besieged.

In the more peaceful times that followed, the 2nd Duke remodelled the castle in the style of a Georgian house.

It is difficult to visualise the castle as it would be at the time when Edward III stayed there in 1336.

Two hundred years later, when Mary, Queen of Scots, was entertained to a hunt at which 360 red deer and five wolves were killed, considerable changes had taken place and the building had been extended southwards from Cumming's tower. The great hall range connecting the two towers was built by the 3rd Earl.

This block is less obvious from the north front than the west where it is revealed by the three rows of sash windows. These windows are a legacy of the remodelling carried out by the 2nd Duke after the '45, when the castellations and corner turrets gave way to low-pitched roofs and chimney stacks. The south end, which was in a ruinous condition, was rebuilt and Cumming's tower was lowered.

It was not until 1869 that the old tower resumed its original appearance, with its stepped gable and bartizan when the 7th Duke engaged David and John Bryce to recastellate the building, adding the present entrance and the ballroom to the north.