Loch Leven Castle

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Loch Leven castle, viewed from the loch

Looking across fields of oilseed rape to Loch Leven Castle

Loch Leven Castle is a castle on an island in Loch Leven in the Perth and Kinross region of Scotland.

A castle may have been constructed on the island (the second largest in the Loch) possibly as early as the late [13th century] by the invading English, at a strategically important position between the towns of Edinburgh, Stirling and Perth. The surviving enclosure wall may incorporate parts of this first castle. It was captured by the Scots before the century ended, possibly by the forces of William Wallace. English forces laid siege to the castle in 1301. The castle was saved in the same year when the siege was broken by John Comyn. King Robert Bruce (1306-29) is known to have visited it in 1313 and again in 1323. Following Bruce's death, it was besieged once more in 1335, this time by English forces in support of the pretender Edward Balliol (d. 1364). It was successfully defended by Alan de Cipont.

The Castle was strengthened in the early-mid 14th century either by Robert I (1306-1329) de Brus or by his son David II (1329-1371), by the addition of the tower house (one of the oldest in Scotland which still substantially survives), a square keep of five storeys. The Castle was granted to William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas in 1372 by King Robert II (1371-1390). In 1675 it was bought from the Douglases by Sir William Bruce (1630-1710), royal architect in Scotland, who built nearby Kinross House, one of the first buildings in the Palladian style erected in Scotland. Thereafter Loch Leven Castle was no longer used as a dwelling, but it was preserved from falling into ruin by Bruce, who retained it as a picturesque focus for the extensive gardens laid out round the House.

The Castle served as a state prison on several occasions. Most famously, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned within the Glassin Tower* from the summer of 1567 by Sir William Douglas. She escaped on May 2, 1568 with the help of his youngest son, but only after miscarrying her twin sons and signing abdication papers. Other prominent prisoners included Robert Stewart, the future King Robert II, in 1369, Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas (d. 1439) in the first half of the 15th century and Patrick Graham the Archbishop of St. Andrews (d. 1478) in the second half.

The Castle (and an outer enclosure of which little trace remains) originally took up almost the entire area of the Castle Island. The present wooded and considerably larger Island was formed in the early 19th century when the canalising of the outflow of the river Leven (which enters the Firth of Forth at the town of Leven) led to a substantial lowering of the Loch.

Today, the Castle can be reached by a 12-person ferry operated from Kinross by Historic Scotland during the summer months (entrance charge payable at the shop on the Castle Island).