Mains Castle (also known as Claverhouse Castle or Fintry Castle [1] ) is a 16th-century castle in Dundee, Scotland. The castle consists of several buildings surrounding a courtyard, although several of the original western buildings no longer exist. The northern and eastern buildings are where the family would have lived, with the servants occupying the southern quarters. The castle also has a large, six-floor, square tower house with dressed cornerstones, which is typical of 16th-century construction. [2] It is a Category A listed building. [3]
The castle is located in Dundee's Caird Park to the north of the city overlooking the Dichty valley and adjacent to a small stream known as the Gelly Burn. On the opposite side of the burn is located the mausoleum of the Graham family and the Main's cemetery, which was formerly the site of the district's kirk. [2] [4]
The castle and its grounds was the subject of a poem by Dundee poet William McGonagall in his work The Castle of Mains. [5]
The castle is believed to have been built in 1562 by Sir David Graham, nephew of Cardinal Beaton. A keystone in the western gateway bears this date as well as the initials DG and DMO for David Graham and Dame Margaret Ogilvy. [2] [6] A horizontal beam in one of the eastern courtyard doors bears a date of 1582, indicating a possible completion date. The castle was the seat of the Grahams of Fintry and remained so until the 19th century when Robert Graham of Fintry sold the lands to David Erskine, with the condition that his family could retain the territorial title of Graham of Fintry and that the estate revert to the older name of Lumlathen or Linlathen. [2] The estate was later sold by Shipley Gordon Stuart Erskine to James Key Caird, who gifted the castle and its lands to the town council as a site for a public park in 1913. [6] The park was later opened in 1923 by Caird's half sister Mrs. Marryat. [2] The castle was renovated in the 1980s through a government scheme for the unemployed, as many of the buildings had become roofless. [7]
An earlier castle was held by the Douglas' Earls of Angus from the 14th century until 1530 when it passed to the Grahams. [8]
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was 148,210, giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 (6,420/mi2), the second-highest in Scotland. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea.
Carnoustie is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast. In the 2011 census, Carnoustie had a population of 11,394, making it the fourth-largest town in Angus. The town was founded in the late 18th century, and grew rapidly throughout the 19th century due to the growth of the local textile industry. It was popular as a tourist resort from the early Victorian era up to the latter half of the 20th century, due to its seaside location, and is best known for the Carnoustie Golf Links course that often hosts the Open Championship.
Doune Castle is a medieval stronghold near the village of Doune, in the Stirling council area of central Scotland and the historic county of Perthshire. The castle is sited on a wooded bend where the Ardoch Burn flows into the River Teith. It lies 8 miles northwest of Stirling, where the Teith flows into the River Forth. Upstream, 8 miles further northwest, the town of Callander lies at the edge of the Trossachs, on the fringe of the Scottish Highlands.
Sir James Key Caird, 1st Baronet was a Scottish jute baron and mathematician. He was one of Dundee's most successful entrepreneurs, who used the latest technology in his Ashton and Craigie Mills.
Clan Farquharson is a Highland Scottish clan based at Invercauld and Braemar, Aberdeenshire, and is a member of the Chattan Confederation.
Dundee East was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created for the 1950 general election, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post voting system.
Liff is a village in Angus, Scotland, situated 4+1⁄2 miles west-northwest of Dundee on a south-facing slope two miles north of the River Tay. It had a population of 568 in 2011.
Clan Graham has two main families of Scottish clans, the Grahams of Menteith and the Grahams of Montrose. Each have their own tartan patterns. William Graham became the 7th Earl of Menteith in 1610 in what is now Perthshire, Scotland. The Grahams of Montrose had territories in both the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands, and the chief of the clan rose to become the Marquess and later Duke of Montrose.
Claverhouse is a residential area located on the northern outskirts of Dundee, Scotland with the city centre located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the area.
Fintry is a housing scheme in Dundee, Scotland. Fintry is located in the north of the city with Mill o' Mains to the west and Whitfield to the east. On the north, Fintry is bordered by farmland, including the Powrie Farm and Powrie Castle. Local parks include Powrie Park and Finlathen Park. Fintry had a population of 6592 in 2011.
Powrie Castle is a ruined 16th-century castle located in the north of Dundee, Scotland. It was designated as a scheduled monument in 1971. The early 17th-century north range of the castle is now a separate fortified house and has been converted into a private residence. It itself is a Category A listed building.
The Caird Hall is a concert auditorium located in Dundee, Scotland. It is a Category A listed building.
Until the Industrial Revolution, the current City Centre represented the full extent of the City of Dundee, Scotland. Now roughly encircled by the A991 dual carriageway, the city centre is now the main shopping and commercial district. Unlike the city centre of Glasgow, many of the city centre's streets are not built on a grid plan and in that way have more in common with the street plan of the Old Town of Edinburgh.
Ballumbie is a residential area on the north-east edge of Dundee, Scotland. The area was formerly an estate centred on Ballumbie Castle, a mid-16th-century fortification, which was followed by the 19th-century Ballumbie House. There is also a golf course surrounded by a medieval wall and the site of a late medieval parish church. The castle and house are located just outside the City of Dundee, in Angus.
Mugdock Castle was the stronghold of the Clan Graham from the middle of the 13th century. Its ruins are located in Mugdock Country Park, just west of the village of Mugdock in the parish of Strathblane. The castle is within the registration county of Stirlingshire, although it is only 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, on the northern outskirts of Greater Glasgow.
Murthly is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It lies on the south bank of the River Tay, 5 miles southeast of Dunkeld, and 9+1⁄2 miles north of Perth. Perth District Asylum, later known as Murthly Hospital, was opened in the village on 1 April 1864 for 'pauper lunatics'. It was the second district asylum to be built in Scotland under the terms of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1857. It closed in 1984 and was later demolished. The village has a stone circle, in the former grounds of the hospital. The village formerly had a railway station on the Perth and Dunkeld Railway, which closed in 1965.
The Grahams of Fintry were a sept of the lowland Clan Graham based in the county of Angus Scotland.
The Dighty Burn, also known as Dighty Water or Dichty Water, is a burn or stream 20 kilometres (12 mi) in length that flows through the north and east of Dundee, Scotland.