Glamis Castle

Glamis Castle stands beside the village of Glamis in Angus, set in the broad Strathmore valley between the Sidlaw Hills and the Grampians. The estate covers more than 57 square kilometres of parks, gardens and farmland, with two streams crossing the grounds. A mile-long avenue lined with daffodils leads to the castle, and an arboretum beside Glamis Burn holds rare trees from around the world. The castle itself is largely a 17th-century building, though parts date back to the 14th century. The castle has belonged to the Lyon family since the 1300s and was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Her daughter Princess Margaret was born there in 1930, and the castle remains the home of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. It is protected as a category A listed building and its gardens appear on Scotland’s Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. The castle also inspired Shakespeare’s Macbeth, though the real King Macbeth had no connection to it. Inside, visitors find rooms from the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Dining Room and Billiard Room with a fireplace taken from Gibside. Outside, the grounds contain statues of 17th-century monarchs and a Pictish stone from the nearby village of Eassie. Legends surround the castle, including tales of a bricked-up suite said to hold a deformed child or a vampire heir. The castle’s history also features a landmark 1728 trial that shaped Scots law.