Today we visited Castle Campbell just north of Dollar.

Colin Campbell, the 1st Earl of Argyll, and Lord Chancellor of Scotland, inherited it through marrying Isabelle Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, the 2nd Lord Lorne in 1465. Colin Campbell (1433 – 1493) was my 10th great grandfather.

It was named Castle Glowm but Colin Campbell had the name changed to Castle Campbell by an Act of Parliament in 1489.

They certainly lived in style. The bed chamber had an en suite latrine built inside the wall and a stone hand basin both draining outside. One bedroom had a huge vaulted ceiling. There are grotesque faces carved in the ceiling from which chandeliers once hung.

The great hall would have had a high table at one end, a gallery for minstrels and a huge fireplace.

Built on a hill, the view is spectacular, looking down over their terraced gardens and woodlands down to the village of Dollar with rolling meadows to the Forth River and then the hills beyond.

The 2nd Earl of Argyll, Gillespie Archibald Campbell (1466 – 1513), my 9th great grandfather, added on an extra hall and cellars. He later died at the battle of Floden in 1513. The castle also has a particularly nasty pit prison, which is basically a square stone hole with a trapdoor roof, for punishing offending serfs, which would not have been pleasant to spend any time in.

An inventory listing the furnishings and property includes tapestries, which would have covered the walls, curtains, tablecloths, chandeliers and pieces of armour.

The 8th Earl aquired a town house in Stirling beside Stirling Castle, previously owned by the 1st Earl of Stirling, which came to be called Argyll Lodgings, which we will visit tomorrow. The Castle was eventually burnt by Oliver Cromwell in 1654 and left to fall to ruin. It is now a Historic Scotland site under the care of the National Trust for Scotland. The current head of the Campbell clan, the 8th Duke of Argyll, now lives with wife and children in Inveraray Castle in the north.

My 8th great grandfather, Donald Campbell (d 1562), was the 4th son of the 2nd Earl, so we are not direct descendants from the later Earls nor Marquis. The 8th Earl, Archibald, was made 1st Marquis in 1641 by Charles 1, and crowned Charles II in 1651, he subsequently fell out of favour with the King who had him beheaded in Edinburgh in 1661.

Yesterday Judith and I visited the Special Collections at the St Andrews library archives where they had organised for us to view books pertaining to our ancestors. The books were brought out from an atmosphere-controlled room wrapped in cloths and we had to prop them up on padded stands to protect the spines when we opened them.

A number of our great grand fathers attended St Andrews University, starting with my 5th great grandfather John Campbell in 1677, and we viewed their academic records. There was also a newspaper article which included a photograph of a portrait of my 3rd great grandfather, the Reverend George Campbell, and 2 volumes by his son (brother to my 2nd great grand father) Baron John Campbell Life of John, Lord Campbell, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain 2 vols, 1881 edited by his daughter, the Hon Mrs Hardcastle in which he gives a history of his genealogy in the first chapter.

There were also two volumes of ‘Memoirs of my Indian Career’, by Sir George Campbell, ed. Bernard with portrait; Gent. Mag. 1854, ii. 75, 76. Sir George Campbell, my great great uncle, describes his life in India and includes a number of references to his brother John Scarlett (my great grandfather) who also served there, and in fact my grandfather was born there during this time.

Judith scanned many pages and in time we will use the information to update our paternal genealogy.

St Andrews University is 600 years old and it was wonderful to be able to walk around some of the old buildings still standing in the village.