Doune Castle

About 8 miles north of Stirling Castle is Doune Castle. It is really off the 'beaten path' and I think many 'tourists' don't realize how close they are to this historic location! It is the castle in which Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed. It is the home of the reign of the Stewarts during the 13th and 14th century and is currently being refurbished under the protection of the Scottish Historic Society.

 The guard room to your right is now the ticket office and souvenir shop that you see when you first enter into the castle grounds.

Tiny, narrow, spiral staircase! All these castles had this type of
staircase - which I found very difficult to climb up. Maybe they
had tiny feet, my feet would not fit completely on the steps. 

Many scenes from the Monty Python film were filmed

in this room. 

Literary, Film and History of Doune Castle

In fiction and drama[edit]

Doune Castle has featured in several literary works, including the 17th-century ballad, "The Bonny Earl of Murray", which relates the murder ofJames Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray, by the Earl of Huntly, in 1592.^[16] In Sir Walter Scott's first novel, Waverley (1814), the protagonist Edward Waverley is brought to Doune Castle by the Jacobites. Scott's romantic novel describes the "gloomy yet picturesque structure", with its "half-ruined turrets".^[17]

The castle was used as a location in MGM's 1952 historical film Ivanhoewhich featured Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor.^[18] The BBC adaptation of "Ivanhoe" in 1996 also featured Doune as a location. The castle was used as the set for Winterfell in the TV series Game of Thrones (2011–present), an adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fireseries of novels by George R. R. Martin.^[19] The castle was used as a stand-in for the fictional "Leoch Castle" in the TV adaption of theOutlander series of novels.^[20]