Glamis Castle

Glamis Castle is famous for being the ancestral home of the former Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. It has been in the Lyon family since 1372. Princess Margaret was also born in the castle. Perhaps an even bigger claim to fame is as the setting for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and also as a film location for some of the TV series The Crown.

It’s an impressive castle – perhaps one of the best I’ve seen. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos of the inside but it was enormous, richly decorated with tapestries and paintings, magnificent ceilings, fireplaces you could park a small car in, kingly four-poster beds, taxidermy, a small museum with interesting old uniforms and fashions including a coronation gown, and even a chapel.

The dining room ceiling is an intricate 3D plasterwork of hanging thistles and they are big, almost like massive chess pieces hanging down into the room. I’m not sure how this person was allowed to take photos but you can see them on the Wee Walking Tours site about Glamis Castle.

The grounds are equally magnificent with a long tree-lined driveway on the approach to the castle.

We asked a tourist to take a photo of the four of us which is this next pic. I think Daniel might be taller than me now.

There’s a sweet pet cemetery in a wooded area on the estate. The stone on the very right is for a guinea pig called Happy.

There’s a wonderful Macbeth trail with carved timber statues of characters from the play. Both the kids have studied Macbeth at school and so enjoyed this a little bit more as it brought it all to life and told the story in order by way of statues.

In summary, three witches tell Macbeth he will be king so he and his wife plot to kill King Duncan which they do successfully and Macbeth becomes king. Plagued with paranoia he starts killing everyone including his best pal Banquo and Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth is ravaged by guilt and commits suicide. Macduff avenges his family and kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes king.

Here are the three witches. I put on my best evil look and joined them.

This is Macbeth.

Here’s the dead Banquo, having just been slaughtered by Macbeth.

I’m haunting the guilty Lady Macbeth.

We enjoyed the trail very much.

The current Lord of Glamis is Simon Bowes-Lyon who inherited the estate in 2016. He’s only 36 and seems to be doing his very best to generate as much controversy and bad publicity for himself as he can. I guess money and titles don’t guarantee sensible, reliable, and hard-working heirs. There’s much to be said for being boring.