Blair Castle

Blair Castle and the Jacobites

When  the first Jacobite rising was launched in April 1689, the Marquess of Atholl decided to remain loyal to the Government, but despite this one of his sons still decided to join the Jacobites.

Atholl's factor, Patrick Steuart of Ballechin, held Blair Castle for King James, and refused entry to Atholl's son and heir, Lord John Murray. This led Murray to lay siege to the castle, but he was forced to retreat by the advent Viscount Dundee and the Jacobites temporarily held on the castle.

Indeed the crucial Battle of Killiecrankie was fought because Dundee did not want to retreat and surrender the castle. Dundee and his officers and clan chiefs held a Council of War at the castle on the eve of the battle, on 26 July. The next day, the Jacobites won the battle but Dundee was killed.

After the battle, Blair Castle remained in Jacobite hands for some time. It continued to play an important role: for example, the Jacobite Highland chiefs swore a bond there together in August, to continue the rising.

In the 1715 rising, the family was again divided. The 1st Duke (the Lord John Murray of 1689) and his second son, James, supported the government, while his eldest and youngest sons, William, George and Charles, joined the Jacobites. When the rising failed, William was stripped of his title and lands and went into exile in France. In his absence, James became 2nd Duke on their father’s death in 1724.

In the 1745 rising Blair Castle was occupied for several times by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army, the first time in early September 1745, and in early February 1746.

However, the Jacobites then perhaps unwisely abandoned it and Government forces, promptly occupied it. They held Blair Castle against the Jacobites, who laid siege to the castle during the last stages of the rising, and in March 1746 Sir Andrew Agnew and his garrison were besieged to near starvation until the Jacobite forces withdrew to fight the British Government forces at the Battle of Culloden.

Brief History of Blair Castle

John I Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, is responsible for starting to build Blair Castle in 1269. He started building on his neighbour, the Earl of Atholl's land while he was away on a crusade. When he returned, the Earl complained about the interloper to King Alexander III, and managed to win back his land, and then incorporated the tower that had been built into his own castle.

The Earl later forfeited his titles and estates after rebelling against King Robert the Bruce in 1308, and the earldom was subsequently granted to a number of individuals over the years. In 1629 John Murray, son of the second Earl of Tullibardine, was created Earl of Atholl and the title has since remained in the Murray family.