Qualla: Lochleven Castle

Lochleven Castle: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Benutzer:Brunswyk, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the night of 2 May 1568, a queen dressed as a servant walked out the gate of a Scottish island castle. Willie Douglas, an orphaned teenager who had stolen the keys, locked the gate behind her. Marie Courcelles, her French chamberer, had let her past. A boat waited on Loch Leven; on the far shore, two hundred horsemen and George Douglas - hopelessly in love with her - waited too. Mary, Queen of Scots, was free after eleven months of captivity. She had already lost her crown, miscarried twins, and signed away her throne in this place. She had ten days of freedom ahead of her before her army was crushed at Langside. Then nineteen years in English prisons. Then the executioner's block at Fotheringhay. But on this one spring night, she got out.

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Image: Benutzer:Brunswyk | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lochleven Castle: The Island and the Wars

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photograph by Colin Riegels, Public domain. Castle Island sits in Loch Leven, in what is now Perth and Kinross, between Edinburgh, Stirling and Perth. The position was strategic - whoever held the castle commanded the routes between Scotland's three principal towns. A fortification may have stood here as early as 1257, whe...

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Image: Photograph by Colin Riegels | Public domain

Lochleven Castle: The Queen Arrives

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mary was taken to Lochleven on 17 June 1567, two days after her surrender at the Battle of Carberry Hill. Her noblemen opposed her marriage to the Earl of Bothwell. She was placed in the custody of William Douglas of Lochleven; his daughters slept in her bedchamber for extra secu...

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Image: Suicasmo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lochleven Castle: The Lion and the Mouse

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Allies on the outside did not forget her. William Maitland of Lethington and Mary Fleming sent a gold jewel into the castle, worked with a scene from Aesop: the lion caught in the net, the mouse nibbling away the knots. The message was unmistakable. Mary wore the jewel. Through t...

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Image: Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lochleven Castle: What Remains

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mary's defeat at the Battle of Langside followed within weeks. She crossed into England seeking Elizabeth's protection and instead found imprisonment that would end at Fotheringhay in 1587. But Lochleven Castle kept playing its role as state prison. The English Earl of Northumber...

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Image: Otter | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lochleven Castle: Fly Past

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photograph by Colin Riegels. Original uploader was Legis at en.wikipedia, Public domain. Lochleven Castle sits on Castle Island in Loch Leven at 56.2008 degrees north, 3.3918 degrees west, about 22 nautical miles north of Edinburgh and 25 nautical miles east of Stirling. The castle is a small grey ruin on a small green island in a roughly oval loch - distinctive from...

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Image: Photograph by Colin Riegels. Original uploader was Legis at en.wikipedia | Public domain