(86) Plate XL/a

                                                             Plate XL.

                                          DOUNE CASTLE.

THIS Castle is in the parish of the same name in the county of Perth. It is an extensive building, and is
situated on the confluence of the Teath and the Andoch, to the south-east of the town or village of Doune.
Tradition states this Castle to have been erected by Murdoc, Duke of Albany and Earl of Monteith, in the
fourteenth century; but it is uncertain. He was grandson to Robert II. It was originally of very great
extent. The walls are now forty feet high, and ten feet wide. The tower is on the north-east corner,
and is now above eighty feet high, but from its size does not appear so. The view, which it commands, is
very extensive; from Ben Ledi on the one side, to Stirling Castle on the other. The north-west angle of
the Castle was the family residence. It is still a most magnificent ruin. The great gate is on the north,
and the iron gate and bars still remain. There are several dungeons on each side the entrance. Within
the walls the ascent to the tower and residence is by two flights of stairs in the court, which seem to have
been formerly covered by a roof supported by stone pillars, but which are now in ruins. From the south-
east corner of one of the rooms, supposed to have been the dining-room, a narrow stone stair-case de-
scends to a dungeon, into which no light or air comes, but from a small hole in the ceiling, which is also
the only entrance. In such wretched cells as these did the savage barons of the elder times confine the
victims of their anger and revenge.—The name of this Castle is from a Gaelic word signifying a mound, or
rising ground, such a one as in fact it is built upon.—Doune Castle was seized by the King, and remained
annexed to the crown till 1502, when it was settled on Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. of England, on
her marriage with James IV. It then came into the Murray family by her marriage with Henry Lord
Methven, their ancestor. James, a descendant, was created Lord Doune in 1581; since which period it
has always remained in the Murray family.—This view was taken in 1799.