A must-see: cross the courtyard of this ruined castle and face the north range — a whole wall cut into diamond points, each block faceted like a gemstone, carried on an arcade and an Italianate stair. Nothing Scottish about this wall: it looks lifted from Spain, Italy or the south of France. It is the work of Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, who, home from his continental travels in the 1580s, transformed the old fortress into a Renaissance mansion. The model is explicit: the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, whose "diamonded" front had dazzled the earl. It is one of the rare examples of Italianate rustication in Scotland — the whim of a cosmopolitan grandee.
Did you know?
Francis Stewart, who commissioned this front, was also one of the most turbulent figures of James VI's reign, suspected of witchcraft and conspiracy; it was this same man who, between disgraces, gave Scotland its finest Renaissance wall.
Info
- Exterior decoration, on the courtyard; the castle is a consolidated ruin.
- The 4th Earl of Bothwell, Francis's uncle, married Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567.
- The sculpture / decorative dimension of Crichton Castle (see the linked monument entry).