Qualla: Crichton Castle

Crichton Castle: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Prussianblues, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the inner courtyard wall of Crichton Castle, the stones form diamonds. Eight rows of them, each block faceted like a cut gem, throwing pyramids of shadow across the courtyard whenever the sun hits the wall. There is nothing else like it in Scotland. The pattern was copied from the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, built in the 1490s, and the man who copied it was Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell - a Scottish noble who had travelled in Italy, married a Douglas, and decided to bring a piece of Italian Renaissance architecture back to a fortress on the head of the River Tyne in Midlothian. Ten years later, Bothwell was accused of witchcraft, forfeited his lands, and fled to Naples to die. The diamond wall has outlived him by more than four centuries.

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Image: Prussianblues | CC BY-SA 3.0

Crichton Castle: The Tower and the Black Dinner

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit thomasfyoung, CC BY 2.0. In the late 14th century John de Crichton built a tower house here as his family seat - a stone keep on a rise above the head of the River Tyne, two miles south of the modern village of Pathhead. His son William served as Lord Chancellor of Scotland and was made Lord Crichton aro...

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Image: thomasfyoung | CC BY 2.0

Crichton Castle: The Hepburns Take It

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In 1483 the 3rd Lord Crichton lost the castle when his patron Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, was sentenced for treason. Five years later King James IV granted it to Patrick Hepburn, Lord Hailes - the man who would soon be made the 1st Earl of Bothwell. The Hepburns of Bothwel...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Crichton Castle: Mary's Wedding Party and Bothwell's Fall

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Darren Haddock, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 4 January 1562, Crichton hosted the wedding of Patrick Hepburn's daughter Jean to John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham and illegitimate son of King James V. The bride's new sister-in-law - John Stewart's half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots herself - attended the wedding and spent se...

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Image: Darren Haddock | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crichton Castle: The Diamond Wall

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathan Oldenbuck, CC BY-SA 3.0. Francis Stewart designed the Italianate north range himself. The courtyard façade was modelled on the Palazzo dei Diamanti, the Diamond Palace built in Ferrara in the 1490s - one of the most distinctive buildings of Italian Renaissance architecture, faced with thousands of pointe...

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Image: Jonathan Oldenbuck | CC BY-SA 3.0

Crichton Castle: Witchcraft, Naples, Ruin

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Prussianblues, CC BY-SA 3.0. Francis Stewart lost the king's favour in the early 1590s. He was accused of witchcraft - the North Berwick trials of 1590-92 had created an atmosphere in which any nobleman the king distrusted could be linked to occult conspiracy - and forfeited his estates in 1592. He fled Scot...

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Image: Prussianblues | CC BY-SA 3.0