Cawdor Castle

The tower was built in the late fourteenth century and the family have lived in it ever since, so the interiors are furnished as a working house rather than as a museum, with tapestries, portraits and rooms still in use. Its oddest feature is in the basement: the stump of a holly tree, carbon-dated to around 1372, stands in the vaulted lowest chamber with the tower built around it. The family legend has the founder following a donkey laden with gold and building where it lay down, under a tree. Shakespeare made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, but the castle postdates the historical Macbeth by three centuries and the family point this out themselves. Three gardens surround it, a walled garden dating from 1620, a flower garden and a wild garden, plus a nine-hole golf course and woodland walks.

What you actually see

• The holly stump - a tree dated to about 1372 in the vaulted basement.
• The lived-in rooms - interiors furnished as a family house, not a museum.
• The walled garden - a formal enclosure dating from 1620.
• The Shakespeare correction - the family's own note that Macbeth was never here.

When to go

May to September, which is the normal opening season; the castle closes for the rest of the year. The gardens are best in June and July. Weekday mornings are quietest.

Honest expectations

The season is short and the castle is shut for much of the year. Interiors are shown on a fixed route with room stewards. The Macbeth association draws visitors who then find it has no historical basis.

Nearby

Nairn and the Moray coast lie north; Clava Cairns and Inverness are west.