Drummond Castle & Gardens, Scotland

Sir Malcome Drummond fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314, after which he was granted lands in Strathearn.  The current Drummond Castle dates from the 15th Century.

Drummond Castle is actually two separate castles, which stand next to each other, these are a late 15th Century tower house and a 17th Century mansion.  Both buildings were restored in the Victorian era.  The tower house was built by John, 1st Lord Drummond around 1490. The 2nd Earl of Perth, who was a Privy Councillor to James VI and Charles I, transformed the castle and added the first terraced garden in the early 17th century.

Margaret Drummond was the daughter of the first Earl Drummond who built the tower house. She was also mistress to King James IV of Scotland during 1496-97.  When the Spanish ambassador Pedro de Ayala visited the court he later wrote of James IV, “When I arrived, he was keeping a lady with great state in a castle.  He visited her from time to time.  Afterwards he sent her to the house of her father, who is a knight, and married her (to another). He did the same with another lady, by whom he had had a son.”

In 1501 Margaret died of food poisoning or poisoned food, along with her sisters Eupheme and Sibylla, while staying at Drummond Castle. It is likely that they were poisoned.   The three sisters are buried together in Dunblane Cathedral.

Drummond gardens date from the 1630’s although they were also restored in the 19th century when the terracing was added, however it is very much a 17th Century Renaissance garden.  The gardens themselves are listed at a higher grade than the castles.  

Drummond Castle belonged to the Drummond family from the 14th century.  In the 17th century it was attacked by the army of Oliver Cromwell.