Book Description

Drumlanrig Castle is the Dumfriesshire family home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry and their Douglas ancestors, and it houses part of the celebrated Buccleuch Art Collection, including such treasures as Rembrandt’s ‘Old Woman Reading’ as well as many other fine paintings, furniture and objects d’art. Overlooking the Nith Valley an hour and a half’s drive south of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Drumlanrig Castle is one of the most hauntingly beautiful houses in Scotland, built of pale pink sandstone and capped with a dozen pointy lead domes, and surrounded by marvellous woods that naturally include the oldest and tallest Douglas Fir in Great Britain.

Much more than a guidebook, this work is a lovingly produced portrait of one of Scotland’s most romantic castles (unfairly described by Daniel Defoe as a ‘beautiful picture in a dirty grotto’. It is illustrated with Fritz von Schulenburg’s exceptional and inimitable photography, captured on a brilliantly sunny February day in 2010.

The history of Drumlanrig is entwined with the history of Scotland and this lovely little book, along with being a detailed guide to the magnificent castle, gives a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the people who have lived and embellished it.

This new second edition of the book (July 2016) has a new cover and a few minor revisions inside. Two further guidebooks to Buccleuch houses have been added to the series, Bowhill: The House, Its People and Its Paintings (2012) describes main family seat of the Scotts of Buccleuch near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. Boughton: The House, Its People and Its Collections, portrays the family home of the Montagu branch of the family, described by John Cornforth in Country Life as the ‘English Versailles’.

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