A Rococo palace in the wilds

Blair Castle, Perthshire The seat of the Dukes of Atholl Reinvented several times, this ducal seat reveals to Mary Miers a stirring history of feudal power, sophisticated patronage, rebellion and romance

- Mary Miers

BLAIR CASTLE is an unmissable landmark on the main route to the Highlands. A vision of brilliant white against the greens and russets of its parkland, it stands on the north side of the River Garry encircled by wooded hills, beyond which stretch the vast and treeless wilds of the ancient deer forest of Atholl (Fig 1).

The flourish of pepperpots, crowsteps and crenellated towers is deceptive, for this is a castle re-created. The Baronial detail belongs to David Bryce’s Victorian remodelling, yet the main range has Georgian sash windows and its walls are clearly older. The long, low south wing suggests 19th-century domestic offices, but things are never quite what they seem at Blair. Behind the uniform white harl lies a building with a history as complex and dramatic as that of the earls, marquesses and dukes of Atholl, who have been connected to the area since the 12th century.

The earliest part of the castle is named after Sir John Comyn (or Cumming), lord of Badenoch, who trespassed onto the territory of the Pictish earldom and, by 1269, had erected a small stone tower. The property was later returned, but, following the Wars of Independence, it came into royal ownership. The first in the present line was Sir John Stewart of Balvenie, half brother of James II, who was granted the earldom in 1457.

In about 1529, the year in which the 3rd Earl staged a great deer drive in honour of James V, whom he entertained in a ‘hunting sete’ of woven birch hung with tapestries, he raised the tower to five storeys and built a three-storey hall range. In 1595, the earldom reverted to the Crown, but was revived in 1629 in favour of John Murray of Tullibardine, a descendant through the female line. The first of the Murray Earls of Atholl, John built a stair tower in the angle between Cumming’s Tower and the hall and began an extension, but the Civil War intervened and work was abandoned.