Where is drumlanrig castle

If this happens to you, please follow the green signs that bring you back around to the Castle. Just an hour away from Glasgow. The bus service Dumfries-Ayr from Dumfries in the South and Ayr in the North via Cumnock, will drop you at the Estate entrance on the A76 no service brings you to the Castle itself. The walk from here to the Castle is 1. The X74 bus service will bring you from Glasgow to Cumnock. Visit advice page. Taste Our Best. Good To Go Logo. Immerse yourself in history at majestic Drumlanrig Castle.

Internet WiFi. Good To Go. Pets Welcome. Lift or stairlift. Accessible Parking Or Drop-off Point. Accessible toilets. Gift Shop. Public Toilet Facilities. Coach Parking. Activities for kids include everything from the adventure playground to ranger-led wildlife walks and a host of events.

The Castle is the stunning Dumfriesshire seat of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and they hope you find it as inspiring as they do. Group visits to Drumlanrig Castle are available year round and can be tailored to suit your requirements. Experience a unique taste of life through the centuries at one of the finest 17th Century Renaissance buildings in Scotland.

Boughton Visit Boughton Visit Boughton for a day out you will never forget. Newsletter signup. Prev Next. Groups welcome all year by appointment Please click here to arrange your visit.

Other than obviously higher stages always carrying years that are the same as or later than the stage below, there doesn't seem any obvious pattern to the progress that took place. Drumlanrig Castle in must have stood out rather more stridently from its surroundings than it does today. Its impact has been softened by centuries of tree plantation in the wider estate despite the efforts of William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry, who at the end of the s cut down many of the estate's trees to sell off as timber to help pay his gambling debts , by the development of formal and informal gardens, and by the knowledge that the castle is now the oldest thing in its landscape.

Early visitors were not always complimentary. Daniel Defoe, in an account of "A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain" published in noted that "We could not pass Dumfries without going out of the way upwards of a day, to see the castle of Drumlanrig, the fine palace of the Duke of Queensberry.

There have been numerous changes to the internal layout and external detailing of Drumlanrig Castle during its lifetime, but despite this the building does succeed in giving a sense of unity: you get the feeling that if the 1st Duke of Queensberry were to visit it today, he's probably feel that the building he created had been reasonably well treated by those who followed.

An example of this can be seen in a courtyard near the old stables, where a cupola taken from the roof and in very poor condition is on show. This has stood here since , when a 17 year project to replace the entire roof of the castle was completed.

The roof is not expected to need further work until The castle was used as an auxiliary hospital during the First World War, and housed the girls of St Denis School, relocated from Edinburgh, between and It has otherwise served the Douglas family as a home throughout its life, and one of its many charms today is that it still has the feel of and is still sometimes used as a family home, even though the main family residence is now elsewhere in the area. Other notable, if more temporary, residents have included Bonnie Prince Charlie who spent a night in what is now inevitably known as Bonnie Prince Charlie's Bedroom on 22 December , en route to his date with disaster at the Battle of Culloden.

He left in such a hurry that his money box was left behind, apparently screwed to the floor. The same bed was slept in by Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, when he stayed at Drumlanrig in It is perhaps a shame that the room cannot be renamed "Neil Armstrong's Bedroom", in recognition of an ex-resident who actually achieved something worthwhile for Scotland and humanity more widely.

The visitor reception is at the end of the right hand as you look at it wing projecting forward from the north face of Drumlanrig Castle. From here you begin a tour that takes visitors through all the important areas of the castle, while maintaining interest throughout. You start in the hall that lies behind the main door on the first floor level of the north face of the castle whether this is the front door or the back door seems to be a matter of some debate.

This room is separated from the central courtyard by a series of arches, and when the castle was first built it served as a "loggia", and was open to the elements on the courtyard side. Today it makes a wonderful room. It's worth looking at the the carpet in the hall. This carries the winged heart motif that serves as the family's emblem and is in evidence wherever you look at Drumlanrig: carved into exterior walls; incorporated into ceiling plasterwork; and repeated in other decoration in just about every room.