Tour Scotland Video Spiral Staircase Elcho Castle Perthshire

Tour Scotland video of the spiral staircase on ancestry visit to Elcho Castle just South of Perth, Scotland. The single entrance doorway at the base of the south-west tower opened onto the spacious spiral main stair within the tower, which rose no higher than the principal rooms on the first floor. Members of the family and their visitors would proceed straight up the stair to that level, because the whole of the ground floor was occupied by the kitchen and associated larders and storerooms. The spiral usually was built clockwise to deter the sword hand of an attacker so they had to hold it in the left hand. This gave you as the defender the advantage.

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Tour Scotland Video Large Bed Chamber Elcho Castle Perthshire

Tour Scotland video of a large bed chamber on ancestry visit to Elcho Castle just South of Perth, Scotland. One of the rooms which probably served as the lodging of the owner. The main room was a large square chamber, with a smaller inner chamber beyond; within the inner chamber was a mural latrine, with a chute leading down to a cess chamber on the rear side of the castle. This lodging was the finest in the castle, and there are traces of an elaborate plaster cornice which was added at the junction of the wall and ceiling, probably in the early seventeenth century. When furnished, adorned with hangings and with a fire burning in the fireplace, it must have provided delightful accommodation for the owner of the castle.

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

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Tour Scotland Video Main Hall Elcho Castle Perthshire

Tour Scotland video of the main hall on ancestry visit to Elcho Castle just South of Perth, Scotland. The main room on the first floor of this Scottish castle was the hall, a splendidly proportioned space warmed by a fireplace in the south wall. The entrance end of the hall was almost certainly partitioned off by a timber draft screen, which would have left the fireplace centrally positioned within the hall. Opening off the screened-off vestibule was a small storage room and two of the three stairs which interconnected the upper storeys of both the main block and the two towers at the west end of the building, though one of those stairs does not open onto both of the upper storeys in the main block. The hall was lit by four large windows which would have had glazing in their upper parts and wooden shutters behind; externally these windows had massive grilles as a security measure. Originally the walls of the hall were plastered.

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Old Photographs South Methven Street Perth Scotland

Old photograph of a Tram, shops and people on South Methven Street, Perth, Perthshire, Scotland.

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

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Tour Scotland Video Haunted Room Elcho Castle Perthshire

Tour Scotland video of a haunted room in Elcho Castle just South of Perth, Scotland. Elcho has been in the ownership of the Wemyss family for five and a half centuries, if not longer. It was part of the possessions confirmed to Sir John Wemyss of Wemyss by James III in 1468, and is still owned by the earls of Wemyss. The date when the present castle began to be built is uncertain, though it was probably in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. We know that the lands were confirmed to Sir John Wemyss in 1552, and this may have been a way of ensuring that his title to it was sound before he started a major campaign of rebuilding. He was certainly able to sign a charter at Elcho in 1558, though that does not necessarily mean that the new house was complete, since there must already have been a house on the site before the one we now see. However, there is a record that in 1570 the laird of Wemyss owed the late Thomas Bryson or Boynting the sum of £7 for ironwork, and it is tempting to suspect that this was for the wrought iron grilles or yetts at the windows and main doorway, and that the main work was complete by then. Members of the Wemyss family are know to haunt this room.

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

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