Tour Scotland Video Birkhill Castle North Fife

Tour Scotland video of Birkhill Castle, North East Fife, Scotland. Birkhill Castle, hereditary estate of the Earl of Dundee. The Earl is also Hereditary Royal Banner Bearer for Scotland. His forbear was awarded this office by the Scottish King Alexander II in the 13th Century and his predecessors carried the Scottish Banner for William Wallace at Stirling Bridge and Robert Bruce at Bannockburn. Bruce appointed the Banner Bearer and his successors as custodians of the City of Dundee. Birkhill was built in 1780 by Viscount Dundee, nearly 100 years after the 1st Viscount Dundee, John Graham of Claverhouse known as both Bloody Clavers and Bonnie Dundee depending on whether you were a Covenanter or not) was killed at the Battle of Killliecrankie in 1689. Between 1857 and 1859 Birkhill was given a Tudor Baronial treatment by the architect David Bryce. The current chief of Clan Scrymgeour is Alexander Henry Scrymgeour of Dundee, the 12th Earl of Dundee has followed his father into politics in the House of Lords. The Scrymgeour family seat is still at Birkhill north of Cupar in Fife. The clan seat was once at Dudhope Castle until the Scrymageour family sold the castle in 1668 to John Graham of Claverhouse.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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