Glamis Castle

Glamis has belonged to the Lyon family since 1372 and the present building is largely a seventeenth-century remodelling of an older tower house, in pink sandstone with a dense crown of turrets and conical roofs, approached along a long straight avenue. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later the Queen Mother, grew up here and her daughter Princess Margaret was born in the castle in 1930. Shakespeare made Macbeth Thane of Glamis, though the historical Macbeth had no connection with the building, which postdates him by centuries; Duncan's Hall is named for the play rather than the history. The castle carries a large body of legend, including a hidden room and a walled-up chamber, none of it substantiated. The grounds hold an Italian garden, a pinetum and a walled kitchen garden.

Highlights

• The turreted front - pink sandstone with a crown of conical roofs.
• The royal connection - the Queen Mother's childhood home and Margaret's birthplace.
• Duncan's Hall - a room named from the play rather than from history.
• The Italian garden - a formal enclosure of yew and beech in the grounds.

When to go

April to October for the castle; the grounds open more widely and the avenue is at its best in autumn. Winter opening is limited to short seasonal periods.

What to expect

The Macbeth connection is literary, not historical, and the castle leans on it in a way that misleads some visitors. Interiors are shown on guided tours only, at set times, with no photography. Tickets are expensive for the amount seen.

Nearby

Forfar and the Angus glens lie north; Dundee is south.

Key facts