Rothesay Castle
Rothesay Castle in the centre of the town of Rothesay on the Isle of Bute is one of the most unusual and historically significant medieval castles in Scotland, remarkable both for its distinctive circular plan and for the depth of its royal associations. Built in the thirteenth century on a circular design that is virtually unique among Scottish castles, the castle became a favoured residence of the Scottish royal house and gave Scotland's eldest son and heir his principal title: the Duke of Rothesay, a designation still held by the heir to the British throne.
The circular curtain wall enclosing a round courtyard is the castle's most distinctive architectural feature, a plan that had no exact parallel in Scotland and was almost certainly influenced by contemporary continental military architecture. The four round towers added to the curtain wall in the fourteenth century, following a devastating Norse attack in 1230 that breached the castle walls by the novel method of hacking through them with axes, completed the castle's defensive arrangements and gave it the formidable profile that made it one of the strongest fortifications on Scotland's west coast.
The Norse attack of 1230 is one of the more vivid episodes in the castle's history. The raiders from Man and the Western Isles beached their longboats, waded across the moat and proceeded to cut through the comparatively thin early thirteenth-century wall with hand tools, a technique that was evidently more practical than any conventional siege approach and which explains the substantial strengthening of the defences that followed. The incident reflects the contested nature of this part of Scotland in the period before the final cession of the Western Isles from Norway to Scotland in 1266.
The castle is managed by Historic Environment Scotland and sits in the heart of Rothesay town, making it easily combined with a visit to the island's other attractions including the Victorian pier, the ornate Victorian public toilets (a listed building of considerable fame) and the Mount Stuart estate to the south.