Qualla: Bothwell Castle https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/j/bothwell-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Bothwell Castle https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle Bothwell Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle/ Photo credit Iain Thompson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Walter of Moray meant Bothwell to be the grandest castle in Scotland. He started with the donjon - a cylindrical keep 82 feet high, 62 feet across, walls 15 feet thick - and planned curtain walls, towers, a great hall, all of it set on a bluff that bent the River Clyde into a defensive curve. Then in 1296, before the rest could be built, Edward I of England crossed the border. For the next 40 years Bothwell would change hands so many times that its own defenders kept demolishing it on the way out the door.

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Image: Iain Thompson | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/j/bothwell-castle-wp/gcvj-bothwell-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bothwell Castle: The Donjon That Outgrew the Castle https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle/ Photo credit Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0. A donjon is a great cylindrical keep, the kind that French and English masons were perfecting in the 13th century at places like Coucy and Dirleton. Walter of Moray, who got the barony of Bothwell through his Norman ancestors and a series of advantageous marriages, wanted one of ...

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Image: Otter | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/j/bothwell-castle-wp/gcvj-bothwell-castle-the-donjon-that-outgrew-the-castle.mp3 0:06 2 full Bothwell Castle: Four Decades of Sieges https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle/ Photo credit Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. Edward I's army took Bothwell almost immediately. The Scots got it back in 1298 after a 14-month siege - the English garrison held out that long. Edward returned in 1301 with 6,800 men and purpose-built siege engines, and the castle changed hands again. After Robert the Bruce won...

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Image: Gordon Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/j/bothwell-castle-wp/gcvj-bothwell-castle-four-decades-of-sieges.mp3 0:06 3 full Bothwell Castle: The Douglas Centuries https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle/ Photo credit Rosser1954, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1362 the wars were over and Bothwell had passed by marriage to Archibald Douglas - 'the Grim' - who became Lord of Galloway and Earl of Douglas. He repaired the donjon and completed the curtain walls his predecessors had only ever planned. His son, Archibald the 4th Earl, adde...

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Image: Rosser1954 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/j/bothwell-castle-wp/gcvj-bothwell-castle-the-douglas-centuries.mp3 0:06 4 full Bothwell Castle: What You See From the Air https://qualla.com/bothwell-castle/ Photo credit Char, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1935 the 13th Earl of Home handed Bothwell over to the state. Historic Environment Scotland has cared for the scheduled monument ever since. The castle closed to visitors in 2020 over safety concerns about the stonework - centuries of weather, war and mining subsidence catchin...

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Image: Char | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/j/bothwell-castle-wp/gcvj-bothwell-castle-what-you-see-from-the-air.mp3 0:06 5 full