Qualla: Melville Castle https://qualla.com/melville-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/v/melville-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Melville Castle https://qualla.com/melville-castle Melville Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/melville-castle/ Photo credit Stephencdickson, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five oak trees still line the drive at Melville Castle, planted, by tradition, by Mary, Queen of Scots herself. She came here often in the 1560s, and the king's musician David Rizzio was housed in one of the castle's apartments - until palace gossip and Rizzio's intimacy with the queen turned the friendship to scandal and, soon afterward, to murder back at Holyrood. The castle has watched five centuries of Scottish drama come and go. Today it is a hotel. The oaks remain.

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Image: Stephencdickson | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/v/melville-castle-wp/gcvv-melville-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Melville Castle: The Original Tower https://qualla.com/melville-castle/ Photo credit John Clerk, of Eldin, CC0. Records of a castle here go back to 1155, when the estate was held by Galfrid de Malle, Sheriff of Edinburgh and Governor of Edinburgh Castle. The family kept it until 1371, when it passed to Sir John Ross of Halkhead. The Rosses held Melville for several generations before the e...

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Image: John Clerk, of Eldin | CC0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/v/melville-castle-wp/gcvv-melville-castle-the-original-tower.mp3 0:06 2 full Melville Castle: Henry Dundas Builds Anew https://qualla.com/melville-castle/ Photo credit Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0. The present Gothic mansion was designed by James Playfair between 1786 and 1791 for Dundas, by then the 1st Viscount Melville and one of the most powerful politicians in the British Empire. Dundas controlled Scottish patronage with such efficiency that he was nicknamed 'Henry the...

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Image: Kim Traynor | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/v/melville-castle-wp/gcvv-melville-castle-henry-dundas-builds-anew.mp3 0:06 3 full Melville Castle: Kings Come Visiting https://qualla.com/melville-castle/ Photo credit Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1828 George IV came to Melville Castle, completing a Dundas victory lap that began with Sir Henry Raeburn's portraits and ended with the colossal statue erected to Dundas in St Andrew Square - on the very site originally chosen to commemorate George IV himself. The Dundas fami...

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Image: Anne Burgess | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/v/melville-castle-wp/gcvv-melville-castle-kings-come-visiting.mp3 0:06 4 full Melville Castle: Rescue and Reopening https://qualla.com/melville-castle/ Photo credit Grendelkhan, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Hay Trust bought the castle in 1993 and spent eight years on a full restoration. It reopened as a hotel in June 2003. Original Collection took the lease in 2021 and refurbished again. Melville Castle now runs as a wedding venue and hotel with 33 bedrooms, some still with four...

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Image: Grendelkhan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/v/melville-castle-wp/gcvv-melville-castle-rescue-and-reopening.mp3 0:06 5 full