Glamis Castle

Situated alongside the Village of Glamis and in the Scottish county of Angus there stands a fine and ornate 17th century tower with later extensions, the façade is built in a style known as Scottish Baronial and it has a history that goes back a thousand years.

The castle is set within its own extensive estates and park land which cover an area of over 57sq km in the Strathmore valley on the southern flank of the Grampian Mountains just to the north of the Sidlaw Hills, the nearest town is Forfar about 10kl to the east and about 15km to the south is the city of Dundee.

The district that Glamis stands in was once part of the heartland of the ancient Pictish people during the Early Middle Ages, these ancient people held territory to the east of the Grampian Mountains that stretched from the Orcadian archipelago in the north to the Firth of Forth in the south. These enigmatic people were known as the "Picti" by the Roman invaders who ruled the southern extent of mainland Britain from the 1st to the 6th century AD on account of the many body tattoos they adorned themselves with.

Exactly who these people were is still a controversial subject, some claim that they are the remnants of an even more ancient culture known as the Caledonii, (Caledonians) a Caledonian Confederacy that existed in Scotland during the Iron Age, but other opinions claim that they are descended from an influx of peoples from the north and east across the North Sea who settled and mixed with the indigenous people who, cut off from the west of Scotland by the towering Grampian Mountains developed their own customs and social structures, Early chroniclers report the existence of a Pictish language that differed from that spoken by the Celtic tribes to the west.

In the year 843AD a Gaelic King Kenneth MacAlpin from the southwest of what is now Scotland amalgamated his kingdom of Dál Riada with that of the Picts to form a new land that was to become known as Alba, the forerunner of what we now call Scotland.

Much of the history of these Pictish tribes has been lost in time but they did leave a legacy in the form of Symbol Stones, (ornately carved stones) throughout the region in which they lived.

Marianus Scotus, an Irish monk and chronicler records that in November 1034 King Malcolm II of Scotland was killed at a battle near to Glamis or possibly at the castle which was probably little more that a defendable Royal hunting lodge at that time, he was described as a most glorious king.

And the Annals of Tigernach, a medieval Irish chronicle records that "Malcolm mac Cináeda, son of Kenneth II and king of the Scots, the honour of all the west of Europe, died”.

A historical poem written in the Middle Irish language "The Prophecy of Berchán", suggests that Malcolm died violently while fighting off Meirleach Mhoireibh (brigands from Moray) at Glamis. Malcolm II is then succeeded by Duncan I, who in turn is replaced by the legendary Macbeth in 1040.

In 1329 Glamis Castle is taken under the control of the crown from the disgraced Balliol family.