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Lochleven Castle (HS)

Kinross

This island stronghold is best known as the prison of Mary Queen of Scots. She was held here from June 1567 to May 1568 when she escaped – only to find herself a few weeks later locked up in another castle in exile in England.The lofty tower house, one of the oldest in Scotland, was probably built in the14th century. This secure royal castle held other prisoners: Robert Stewart, later to succeed to the throne as Robert II, was imprisoned here in the winter of 1368-69, as was his son Alexander, later to be known as the notorious ‘Wolf of Badenoch'.At that time the castle, with its courtyards and other buildings, would have occupied almost the whole island. With the lowering of the loch in the early 1800s the island almost quadrupled in size.Shop, picnic area.