Rothesay Castle: A Medieval Scottish Fortress and Royal Residence
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- United Kingdom
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- Medieval
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- Kingdom of Scotland
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- Military
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- Castle
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History
Rothesay Castle is a thirteenth-century Scottish castle in Rothesay, United Kingdom, on the Isle of Bute. Built under Scottish rule during the medieval period, it guarded a frontier shaped by rivalry between the Scottish kingdom and the Kingdom of Man and the Isles. Bute had been colonized by Vikings from Man in the late eighth century, and its position in the Firth of Clyde gave the castle continuing importance in the struggle for control of the western islands.
Scottish control and the first castle
After Somerled, a Celtic-Norse lord of Argyll, challenged the authority of the King of Man in 1158, his death in 1164 led to the division of the western islands among his sons. William I of Scotland probably took control of Bute and the islands in the Firth of Clyde during this period. Around 1200, Alan fitz Walter, the second High Steward of Scotland, governed Bute on William’s behalf. The High Steward was a senior hereditary royal office, and the Stewart family later became Scotland’s ruling dynasty. A wooden stronghold of timber and earth was probably built at Rothesay during Alan’s rule.
The stone castle was probably begun in the first quarter of the thirteenth century by Alan fitz Walter or his son Walter Stewart. By 1230, a stone enclosing wall was in place. That same year, Norwegian forces led by Óspakr-Hákon attacked Rothesay. Hákon IV of Norway had appointed Óspakr-Hákon King of Man and the Isles, and the expedition sought to reassert Norwegian authority in the region.
After three days of fighting, the attackers cut through the eastern wall with axes, taking advantage of the softness of the stone, and killed the castle’s keeper. They withdrew when they learned that Alan of Galloway was approaching with almost 200 ships. Óspakr-Hákon later died from a wound at Kintyre. The attack is described in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, a medieval account of the reign of Hákon IV, and is regarded as the earliest recorded assault on a Scottish castle. Rothesay returned to Scottish control, and its defences were repaired.
Norwegian attacks and the end of Norse rule
Hákon IV captured Rothesay again in 1263, before the Battle of Largs, an encounter between Norwegian and Scottish forces during the contest for the western islands. The castle was surrendered on the condition of a truce, but the Norwegian forces broke the agreement and killed Scottish defenders. The Battle of Largs had no clear victor. Hákon withdrew to Norway and died at Kirkwall during the return journey.
In 1266, Hákon’s son Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland reached an agreement that formally made Bute Scottish and ended Norwegian authority in western Scotland. Rothesay was strengthened after this change. Four round towers and a northern gatehouse were added, giving the castle a more substantial defensive form.
Wars of Independence and Stewart rule
During the Wars of Scottish Independence, the castle changed hands several times. It was held by the English, captured by Scottish forces associated with Robert the Bruce, returned to English control in 1334, and later retaken by the Scots. Robert the Bruce, also known as Robert I of Scotland, was the king who led the successful phase of Scotland’s struggle against England.
Rothesay gained a new royal importance after the Stewart dynasty came to the Scottish throne in 1371. Robert II and Robert III both favoured the castle as a residence. Robert II granted hereditary custody of it to his son John, whose descendants became the Earls and Marquesses of Bute. In 1401, Robert III created his eldest son David Duke of Rothesay. The title became the traditional designation of the heir to the Scottish throne. Robert III is traditionally said to have died at the castle in 1406.
In 1462, Rothesay survived a siege by forces led by John of Islay, Earl of Ross and the last Lord of the Isles. The attack came during a period when royal authority over the western islands was being contested. In the early sixteenth century, James IV used the castle as a base while consolidating royal control over the Isles. He converted the gatehouse into a royal residence, and the work continued under James V until it was completed around 1540. This phase included raising the northern towers and building the chapel.
Sixteenth-century conflict and later decline
The castle resisted a siege led by the Master of Ruthven in 1527. Much of the burgh of Rothesay was destroyed during the attack. In 1544, Rothesay was captured by the Earl of Lennox, who acted for England during the Rough Wooing, the mid-sixteenth-century conflict connected with English efforts to arrange a marriage between Mary, Queen of Scots, and the future Edward VI. Esmé Stewart, Duke of Lennox, stayed at the castle in October 1582 after being forced to leave Scotland by the Ruthven regime, a faction that controlled the Scottish government in the early 1580s.
Royal interest in Rothesay is not documented after the reign of James V. Troops belonging to Oliver Cromwell’s occupying forces were stationed at the castle from about 1650 until 1660. When they departed, they partly dismantled it. In 1685, during the rising led by Archibald Campbell, ninth Earl of Argyll, the castle was plundered and burned. It was left uninhabitable, and its keeper, Sir James Stewart, moved into the nearby Mansion House.
Excavation and preservation
After a long period of neglect, the second Marquess of Bute began excavating the ruins in 1816 and 1817. Large quantities of rubble were removed, and the gatehouse was repaired. Restoration resumed in 1871 under the third Marquess of Bute after surveys and advice from the architect William Burges. Work continued until 1900, stabilizing the ruins, clearing and reshaping the moat, adding red sandstone to the forework, and reconstructing the great hall roof. These interventions substantially changed the character of the building. While the moat was being cleared, the original oak bridge was found in a burned condition.
Part of the north-west tower collapsed in 1937 and was rebuilt. In 1961, Rothesay Castle passed into state care. It is now managed by Historic Environment Scotland, Scotland’s public body for the care and interpretation of many nationally important historic places, and remains a protected and scheduled monument in the United Kingdom.
Remains
Rothesay Castle has an unusual roughly circular plan, about 42 metres across, enclosed by a broad moat. The surviving structure is ruinous, but its principal defensive arrangement remains clear. A massive circular curtain wall, the main enclosing defensive wall of a castle, was built on a low mound. Later additions projected from the wall, while the northern gatehouse extended into the moat and formed the principal residential and ceremonial focus of the site.
Circular enclosure and towers
Curtain wall and moat
The earliest stone enclosure consisted chiefly of a circular curtain wall built from coursed ashlar, or carefully laid cut stone, in yellow and red sandstone. The wall was approximately 2.7 to 3 metres thick and originally about 7.9 metres high. It was later raised to as much as 10 metres, probably around 1500. Its upper edge originally carried broad crenellations reached by open stairs. Holes in the upper sections probably supported a timber bretache, a projecting wooden platform from which defenders could attack enemies close to the base of the wall.
The wall had only two original openings. The arched main entrance was originally closed by a simple timber door, while a small postern, or secondary entrance, pierced the west wall before being blocked. The moat was connected to the sea when the shoreline lay closer to the castle’s north-east side, approximately 100 metres farther north-east than it is today. The bridge now crossing the moat on the north side is modern.
Round towers
Four projecting round towers were added in the later thirteenth century at the north-west, north-east, south-east, and south-west sides of the enclosure. Each was a three-storey structure with a strongly splayed base, a crenellated parapet, and arrow slits. The south-west tower is largely lost, while the south-east tower survives only in the bases of its walls. The north-east tower is relatively well preserved, and the north-west tower was partly rebuilt after its collapse in 1937.
The north-west tower was originally the largest and probably contained the keeper’s private quarters. Its upper part was converted into a dovecot, a structure for housing pigeons, during the seventeenth century. Nest boxes were built into its outer wall, giving the tower the name Pigeon Tower. The arrow slits have an unusual shovel-shaped termination described as unique in Scotland.
Northern forework and royal lodgings
Gatehouse and entrance passage
The northern gatehouse, also known as the sixteenth-century forework, is rectangular in its principal form and follows an L-shaped plan that projects into the moat. It was approached by a drawbridge. Its entrance could be closed by a portcullis, a heavy gate that moved vertically. Behind the entrance lies a vaulted passage, or pend, with a porter’s lodge on the left.
A trapdoor in the passage leads to a prison cell beneath the gatehouse. The cell includes a latrine, preserving evidence of the practical arrangements within the defensive entrance complex.
Upper tower and great hall
The upper part of the forework forms a four-storey tower containing royal lodgings. A royal coat of arms remains above the entrance. The great hall occupied the first floor. Its east and south walls were rebuilt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and its roof was reconstructed during the restoration completed around 1900.
Chapel and courtyard structures
Chapel of Saint Michael
A simple rectangular chapel was built on the east side of the inner courtyard around 1500. Dedicated to the archangel Michael, the patron saint of warriors, it measures approximately 7 by 14 metres. The chapel occupied the first floor, while the ground floor served as storage. A piscina, a wall basin used in Christian worship, and a wall cupboard are located on the east side. The chapel is the only surviving structure within the curtain wall.
Timber buildings
Archaeological evidence from the courtyard indicates that several timber buildings once stood inside the enclosure. These included stables and a smithy, adding evidence of the practical activities that supported the castle’s occupation.
Legend of the Bloody Stair
A nineteenth-century ballad associates the castle with the ghost of Lady Isobel, who was said to appear on the Bloody Stair behind the chapel. In the story, her family was killed by the Norse, and she stabbed herself rather than marry a Norwegian. The tale forms part of the later tradition attached to the surviving ruins.
