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Traditions and Stories of Scottish Castles
by A. H Millar, LL.D
The first collection of castle on this page are from the above book but below we are listing other castles where we also have information from other sources.


One of the chief peculiarities of the Celtic nations is their fondness for local traditions. Every ruined Keep or dismantled Tower throughout the Highlands has some marvellous tale or romantic incident connected with it, which is lovingly preserved and handed down from generation to generation with undoubting faith and pious care, worthy sometimes of a better cause. The poetical cast of the Celtic mind throws around the most ordinary events a halo of romance which renders attractive many localities that would be otherwise uninteresting; and even the shrewdly practical Lowland mind, when brought under the influence of the spell, cannot entirely resist the glamour of the times ‘that are gone, or remain indifferent to the tales of love and war, which are sanctified by their removal for several centuries.

Yet it needs not that the Lowlander should fly to the fastnesses of the Highland chieftains to feed upon romance, since there is an inexhaustible fund of interest to be found in the Castles within his own territories. Traditions, less mendacious but quite as romantic as the northern stories, are in existence with reference to all the Castles of note in the Lowlands, and require but the collector to rescue them from oblivion in this possibly too practical age. A romantic tale is not less interesting though its date be not that of a far-distant past; and it should be some recommendation if the story be a veritable fact, rather than a notion "all carved from the carver’s brain." It is with the purpose of gathering up some of the traditions still preserved in local narratives of some of the historic Castles in all parts of Scotland that this work is written, being sure that these are not without interest to every lover of our country.
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The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland
The Castles and Keeps of Scotland
Being a description oj sundry fortresses, towers. peels, and other houses of strength built by the princes and barons of old time in the highlands, islands, inlands, and borders of the ancient and godfearing kingdom of Scotland By Frank Roy Fraprie (1907) (pdf)
Ancient Towers and Doorways
Being Pictorial Representations and Restorations of Masoncraft relating to Celtic and Norman Ecclesiology in Scotland From Pen Drawings by the late alexander Galletly with Appreciation and Descriptive Letterpress by Andrew Taylor (1896) (pdf)
Ancient Towers in the North of Scotland (pdf)
The Pillar-Towers of Scotland

By Thomas A. Wise (pdf)
Some Scotch Castles and their Stories
By Charles Turner illustrated from recent photographs (pdf)

Return to our History page  |  Videos of Scottish Castles
See also The Castle Guy


 


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