- Sanquhar Castle
, and is passed by hundreds of keen walkers who walk through the grounds each year.
The castle is a stronghold naturally bounded on the west by the
River Nith , to the north by a burn, and made strong by a deep ditch running the remainder of the boundary. It was visited by many notable figures who appear in the history of the local area, includingRobert the Bruce ,William Wallace , Edward I,Mary Queen of Scots , andJames VI .Sanquhar Castle was sold by the Crichtons in the mid 17th century to Sir
William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry , who established the fairytale pink sandstoneDrumlanrig Castle ten miles south of Sanquhar near Thornhill. From then on the castle at Sanquhar began to steadily crumble to a ruin, until 1895 whenJohn Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute , purchased it and attempted to enthuse a restoration of his ancestral home, following successful restorations atCardiff Castle andCastell Coch in Wales. Sadly, work ended following his death in 1900, and what is left of the site is an odd mix of restoration and original stonework.External links
* [http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/sanquhar/castle/index.html http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/sanquhar/castle/index.html]
* [http://www.phouka.com/travel/castles/sanquhar/sanquhar.html http://www.phouka.com/travel/castles/sanquhar/sanquhar.html]
* [http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/Castles/Sanquhar.htm http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/Castles/Sanquhar.htm]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.