Taymouth Castle

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Taymouth Castle, the seat of the Earl of Breadalbane, in Kenmore parish, Perthshire, near the right bank of the winding Tay, 1 mile NE of the foot of Loch Tay, and 5 miles WSW of Aberfeldy. Built between 1801 and 1842 on the site of the Castle of Balloch (1580), it is a magnificent pile of four stories, with round towers at the angles, wings two stories high at opposite corners, and a massive central quadrangular tower, forming an airy pavilion 150 feet high. It is constructed of a dark grey stone; and the interior is fitted up in a most princely style, and adorned with paintings by Titian, Rubens, Vandyke, etc. The pleasure-grounds, comprising a circuit of 13 miles, contain a great number of noble trees, and ore laid out in a style of elaborate decoration which has sometimes been pronounced too fine and formal. The Queen and Prince Albert made a visit of three days to Castle in Sept. 1842; and on 3 Oct. 1866 the Queen drove over again from Dunkeld. Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy (c. 1400-78), younger son of Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, received from James III. the barony of Lawers. Among his descendants have been Sir Duncan Campbell, created a baronet in 1625; Sir John Campbell (1635-1716), created Earl of Breadalbane in 1681, whom Macky described as 'grave as a Spaniard, cunning as a fox, wise as a serpent, and slippery as an eel;' John, fourth Earl (1762-1834), created Marquess of Breadalbane in 1831; and Gavin, seventh and present Earl (b. 1851; suc. 1871), who is thirteenth in descent from Sir Colin, and who holds 372,729 acres in Perth and Argyll shires (an area larger than that of 19 of the 33 Scotch counties), valued at £49,931 per annum.—Ord. Sur.,sh. 55, 1869. See Breadalbane, Kilchurn Castle, Glencoe, and chap. xxxii. of T. Hunter's Woods and Estates of Perthshire (Perth, 1883).

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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