- McDuck Castle
McDuck Castle is a fictional Scottish castle in The
Scrooge McDuck universe . It served asClan McDuck 's main castle.The Castle in Comic Books
The castle was first featured in the
Carl Barks story "The Old Castle's Secret " in "Donald Duck Four Color #189". Barks' only other story to have McDuck Castle was in "The Hound of the Whiskervilles ".Don Rosa used the castle in "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck ", [Rosa, Don. "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck." Gemstone Publishing; 2005. ISBN 978-0911903966. ] Parts 1, 5, and 9, and in "A Letter from Home/The Old Castle's Other Secret". According to "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck", the castle is located in Dismal Downs, somewhere inRannoch Moor (a non-fictional location inScotland ). The nearest village is the fictional MacDuich. The McDuck family (except for a few family ghosts) vacated the castle in1675 , relocating to MacDuich due to the depredations of "a monstrous devil dog." [Rosa, Don. "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck." "Op Cit." page 9.]Other comic book artists have used the Castle too. The most famous use of the McDuck Castle outside of the Barks/Rosa universe is an Angus/
Vicar story titled "The Sobbing Serpent ".According to "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck", the castle was built in
400 AD , as portrayed in the unpublished first draft sketches. [Rosa, Don. "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck." "Op Cit." First Draft panel 2, page 22. The founding date of the castle is unattested, but may be inferred by MacDuich's participation in the expulsion of the Romans in 400 A.D. Given Iron Age Scots propensity for fortified dwellings, the castle may have been extant by 122 A.D. in its earliest form as an Iron Age fort.] It is most probably based uponAndrew Carnegie 'sSkibo Castle , befitting the character of Scrooge McDuck as a loose caricature of Carnegie. [cite news | url=http://www.standrewssocietyofvermont.org/Apr07-2.pdf | title=The Green Mountain Lion, April 2007 |last=| first=|date=April 2007 | publisher=St. Andrews Society of Vermont|format=PDF] Upon the death of his father,Scrooge McDuck becameLaird ofThe Clan McDuck and owner of the castle and its lands.Rosa, Don. "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck." "Op Cit." "Laird of The Clan McDuck", pages 92-107, 108.] Indeed, Scrooge had supported the castle financially for many years prior, enabling the McDuck family to reoccupy it in1885 .Rosa, Don. "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck." "Op Cit." "Laird of The Clan McDuck", pages 92-107, 108.]Present Day Laird
It is not clear who inherited the castle and title after Scrooge's (unofficial) death in
1967 . [Scrooge McDuck Timeline according to Rosa.] [ [http://coa.inducks.org/story.php/x/GC+HD++77B I.N.D.U.C.K.S. Story code: GC HD 77B] ] According to both Barks and Rosa, Scrooge's grand-nephewsHuey, Dewey, and Louie are the likely candidates. [ [http://duckman.pettho.com/history/chapter9.html The Lives and Times in Duckburg, Chapter IX (1967-) The dawn of a new age.] ]The Castle on Television
In the show
Duck Tales , McDuck Castle appeared in the Episode "The Curse of Castle McDuck " where Scrooge, Webby, and the Nephews investigate a crisis in Scotland. That Episode is loosely based on "The Hound of the Whiskervilles". [Duck Tales, Season 1, Episode 52, Nov 17, 1987, "The Curse of Castle McDuck "]See also
*
Scrooge McDuck
*The Clan McDuck
*The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck References
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