View of South face of castle from South East.

Description View of South face of castle from South East.

Date 26/4/1999

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number D 47011 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 764719

Scope and Content South Front, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway, from the south-east The castle, built of pinkish local sandstone, is very similar in plan to George Heriot's Hospital (now School), Edinburgh. It is constructed round an open inner courtyard, with a five-storeyed, rectangular tower at each outer corner. The towers have balustraded flat lead roofs with pepperpot turrets arising from the corners, and Y-shaped lead downpipes (right). The four-storeyed main range of the south front is rather severe, but is enlivened by a central pedimented Doric doorpiece at the head of a double stair leading to the garden. The stair has an elaborately decorated 17th-century wrought-iron balustrade and its landing is supported by Tuscan columns. The projecting stairs at either end of the front are carried on porches and although similarly decorated with elaborate wrought-iron balustrades, are mid-19th-century additions. The south front, with commanding views over formal gardens to parkland and the wooded hills beyond, contains the principal rooms of the house. When the house was built, the first floor was intended for the duke's occupation, and contained his dining room, drawing room and bedchamber. The floor above, with its longer windows, was the 17th-century 'piano nobile' or principal floor. It contained the state apartments in an identically planned suite of rooms as the floor below, with a great state dining room in the centre, a state drawing room to the west (left), and a state bedroom in the south-west tower. This latter room was used by Prince Charles Edward Stuart when he stayed at the castle on his retreat northwards in 1745. Drumlanrig Castle, one of the great Renaissance courtyard houses of Scottish domestic architecture, stands on a terraced platform amongst the wooded hills of Nithsdale. The mansion was built between 1679 and 1690 for William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry, incorporating part of a mid-16th-century house and the remains of a late 14th-century Douglas stronghold which originally stood on the site. The architect was almost certainly James Smith who had worked on the construction of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and the builder was William Lukup who is buried in Durisdeer churchyard nearby. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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