Publication Account
Date 1995
Event ID 1016679
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016679
Dominated by its great 15th-century tower, Cawdor is an outstanding example of a fortified house which has evolved over many centuties. Whether or not the site was occupied in the 11th century at the time of Macbeth, the Calders are documented as Thanes of Calder or Cawdor from the late 13th century on. The present tower dates from 1454 when William, Thane of Cawdor, was granted a royal licence 'to erect his castle of Cawdor and fortify it with walls and ditches, and equip the same with turrets and means of defence'. By the forced marriage of an heiress in 1510 the succession passed to a cadet branch of the Campbells of Argyll.
The central tower has a blocked entrance (now a window) to the first-floor hall, and the usual vaulted basement reached only by a stair in the wall. From this there is a modern opening to a newly discovered pit-prison with its own latrine chamber, formerly reached on ly from above through a trapdoor. The iron yett at the foot of the stair is said to have been taken from Lochindorb Castle, which was destroyed in 1457. Access from the hall to the upper floors was by a spiral stair in the thickness of the wall. The early tower may well have been surrounded by a walled courtyard with outbuildings on the present lines, but these ranges have been extensively rebuilt.
To the south and south-east are two-storey ranges of the mid to late 19th century, but built to match the style of the earlier castle; in the east wall is a central drawbridge over the dry moat. On the west and north are long three-storey ranges, 16th century in origin but largely rebuilt for Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor between 1639 and 1674 by local masons from Nairn. These ranges have vaulted lower rooms with slit windows and thick walls, crowstepped gables, and projecting attic stair turrets with attic chambers above, and they are linked to the old tower by a new scale-and-platt stair tower. The north-east range is early 18th century (contract signed in 1699) but its roof, dormer windows and turret were added in the 19th century, when some alterations were also made to the north range.
Over the entrance to the 17th-century wing is a date-stone of 1672. On the first floor is the new Great Hall with wooden ceiling beams, a musicians' gallery at one end, and its original chimneypiece. Above this on the bedroom floor is the Tapestry Room, its walls still hung with tapestries made for the room in Flanders in 1682. All the rooms are filled with family furnishings and pictures collected over many years. Passing through other rooms the visitor reaches the present diningroom, with its curious chimneypiece carved around 1670 to commemorate the Calder-Campbell marriage of 1510. Past the modern kitchen is the old kitchen with a rock-cut well in the vaulted basement of the west range. This room was used as a kitchen from at least the 17th century to 1938, and retains much of its old equipment. Beyond were the bakehouse, now a larder, and the vaulted stables, later used as wine cellars.
Round the castle are three different gardens, and there is an attractive 17th-century church in Cawdor village.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).
