Brodick Castle & Gardens

Brodick Castle from the West

Brodick Castle can best be described as a strategically important defensive fortification from the 1200s to 1600s with an 1800s stately home wrapped around it.

Brodick Castle above Brodick Bay ...And from the East Woodland Walk Walled Garden Visitor Centre Ice House Brodick from the Garden

The castle is situated on a shelf above the north side of Brodick Bay and under the shadow of Goatfell, which rises behind it. The location was probably used as a defensive site by the Vikings until they were driven from Arran after 1000. The original castle was built some time after 1266 for the Stewarts of Menteith. During the Wars of Independence it was held by the English until retaken by the Scots in 1307.

Its subsequent history was equally turbulent. English ships damaged the castle in 1406, and further damage was caused by MacDonald, Lord of the Isles in 1455. Meanwhile, ownership of the castle passed through various hands before it came into the possession of the Hamiltons in 1503.

The castle was rebuilt by them in 1510, but suffered further damage in 1528 during clan battles between Campbells and MacLeans, and again in 1544 at the hands of Henry VIII's forces.

Further rebuilding and expansion took place in the 1550s, but its troubled history was not yet complete. In 1639 the castle was captured by the Campbells, then recaptured by the Hamiltons. And in the 1650s the castle was occupied, and extended, by Cromwell's troops.

Today it takes a real act of imagination to see the castle as it must have been during these centuries. Only occasional glimpses remain. In 1977, restoration work uncovered a staircase leading to a room that had lain hidden and long forgotten, entirely contained within the thickness of the castle walls.

Other alleged remants of this earlier history include at least three different ghosts: a man sometimes seen sitting in the library; a white deer only seen, it is said, when the Clan Chief of the Hamiltons is near death; and a grey lady thought to be the ghost of one of three women who died of starvation in the dungeons where they were placed because they had the Black Death.

Sundial

Bavarian Summer House

Interior... with Pine Cones

What the visitor to Brodick Castle is rather more likely to see today owes most to work that began in 1844, in effect to convert the castle into a stately home for the Hamiltons. The results are simply stunning as you are taken back into a time-capsule of Scottish Baronial life in the 1800s and 1900s: but it is an experience more for lovers of stately homes than lovers of castles.

From the entrance hall and staircase, complete with its collection of 87 stags' heads, all the way through to the monumental kitchen with its vast range comprising two fires and three ovens, and its huge collection of copper pans, the experience is a striking one, mostly due to the completeness of the furnishings and spendour of the decoration and artifacts.

From a drawing room of huge proportions through to a (slightly) more intimate wood-panelled dining room able to seat twelve with plenty of space all round; from the private apartments to the library and gallery; from the paintings to the remarkable collections of sporting trophies, Brodick Castle is an outstanding example of a stately home captured at a particular moment in time.

In each of the rooms you will find guides able and willing to explain the background to the room and its contents. Incidentally, visitors will find photography prohibited inside the castle itself, which is one of the reasons why you will find no images of the interior on this page.

But nowadays there's much more to Brodick Castle than the Castle itself. The most recent addition is an excellent visitor centre. But most visitors will divide their time between the Castle and the gardens that surround it.

Parts of these date back to at least 1710, according to a date in the wall surrounding part of the garden. Further work was undertaken from 1814, but the main development of the gardens as they are today date back to the work to elevate the castle to a stately home in 1844. The gardens were subsequently a passion of the Hamiltons. Like the Castle, its gardens offer a glimpse into another world and another time.

Visitors can follow waymarked routes that extend for a half mile or a mile, or simply find their own way around. For some it is the plants themselves that will form the highlight of the tour. Others will enjoy the ice house under its heavy turf roof. A real oddity is offered by the Bavarian Summer House. This has an outer surface imitating tree roots; and the interior is largely lined with pine cones. The end result is impressive, but in a way that is more spooky than simply pleasant, bringing to mind the story of the gingerbread house, or even the more recent fable of the Blair Witch Project.

Overall, Brodick Castle offers visitors a remarkably complete example of a stately home to enjoy, some excellent gardens and a country park. It is no surprise to find it is one of the major visitor attractions on Arran.

Brodick Castle and Gardens