Edzell Castle

Edzell Castle Facts

• The castle and the motte are named Scheduled Ancient Monuments, and the garden is included in the Inventory of Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes.
• The decorative hedges in the garden are trimmed into floral shapes – the English rose, the Scottish thistle, and the French fleur-de-lis.
• Plants in the garden are clipped to form the two mottoes of the Lindsay family – Endure Forte (endure firmly) and Dum Spiro Spero (While I breathe, I hope)
• The castle is said to be haunted by the second wife of the 9th Earl of Crawford, Katherine Campbell, who is said to have been buried alive. Her ghost is said to take the shape of a “White Lady.”

Edzell Castle Q&A

What Type of Castle Is Edzell Castle?

While the original castle in the area was a motte and bailey castle, the current castle was designed to be closer to a country house than a defensive property. 

When Was the First Castle at Edzell Built?

The first castle at Edzell can be dated to the 12th century. The construction of the current castle started in 1520.

What Is the Significance of the Walled Garden?

There are many interpretations of the symbolism of the garden. Some potential influences include the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe’s garden at Uraniborg, the Freemasons, and the Rosicrucians.

The Garden’s Structure

Edzell’s pleasaunce is a Renaissance-era walled garden. Though these were relatively popular at the time, this garden is one of the few extant survivors that can be seen today. Started in 1604, the garden was completed around the time of Sir David Lindsay’s death in 1610.

While the garden’s north wall is part of the castle courtyard, the other three walls are intricately decorated with carved panels. The east wall features carvings of the Seven Planetary Deities thought to have been inspired by the engravings of either Georg Pencz or Iorg Bentz. The deities features are:

• Luna
• Mercury
• Venus
• Sol
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn 

The west wall features carvings of the Seven Cardinal Virtues, while the south wall features the Seven Liberal Arts. Both sets of carvings are believed to have been derived from the paintings of Marten de Vos. The west wall features:

• Fides (trust)
• Spes (hope)
• Caritas (charity)
• Prudentia (prudence)
• Temperantia (temperance)
• Fortitudo (fortitude)
• Justitia (justice)

The carving of fides (or trust) has been damaged. The south wall features:

• Grammatica (grammar)
• Rhetorica (rhetoric)
• Dialectica (logic, argument)
• Arithmetica (arithmetic)
• Music (music)
• Geometria (geometry)
• Astronomia (astronomy)

Two of the carvings on the south wall have been damaged – those depicting Grammatica (grammar) and Musica (music). Additionally, the carving depicting Astronomia (astronomy) is currently missing.

No record of what plants were originally planted in the garden survives, though some records note that fruits were grown in the space in the 17th century. The current planting of the garden dates to the 1930s.

What Was the Main Use of Edzell Castle?

The castle was mainly used as the seat of the Lindsay family, who were the lords of the nearby village of Edzell. As the castle was designed to be a home, it rarely saw military action.

How Big Is Edzell Castle?

The castle was made up of a four-story tower house (Stirling Tower), a two-story west range, the incomplete three-store north range, and additional buildings in the south and west during its heyday. Other aspects of the property include the walled garden and the two associated structures, the bath house and the summer house.

The main tower house is 16 meters (52 feet) high, with walls over 2 meters (6.6 feet) thick at the thickest part in the basement. The walled garden is rectangular and measures 43.5 meters (143 feet) east to west and 52 meters (171 feet) north to south.

The Castle

The main castle is made up of the tower house and the north and west ranges. While there were originally buildings in the south and east, they have vanished over time.

Stirling Tower, the tower house, was named after the original lords of Edzell and consists of four stories. You can enter it from a door on the north side that is protected by gun holes. The hall occupies the first story, which is located above two vaulted cellars.

A spiral staircase leads to the other three stories, which are full of private chambers. There is a cap-house at the top of the castle, which leads to a parapet walk. 

The tower corners have open turrets, while the parapet is supported on corbels arranged in a style known as chequered corbelling. This is an early example of the style, which would become popular later in the 16th century.

The Ranges

The west range consists of two stories and can be entered via an arched passage in the courtyard. The main entrance leads to a kitchen. On the first story, there is a drawing room and a larger hall.

The north range was meant to consist of three stories. However, only the western part was completed over the years. The range included a kitchen and several private towers.

Though only the foundations of the buildings that once stood in the south and the east remain, it is thought they contained a bakehouse and stables. 

Accompanying Buildings

The garden is complemented by two buildings in the corners furthest away from the castle – a bath house and a two-story summer house. While the bath house is in ruins, the summer house is still relatively intact.

While there is no record of who designed the garden buildings, certain design features have led to them being attributed to Thomas Leiper, a stonemason from Aberdeenshire. The summer house consists of an upper and a lower room. The lower room is groin vaulted, while the upper room contains the only surviving display of the carved oak wall paneling that once decorated the castle.