Huntingtower Castle.

With herself safely installed for the day in a patchwork exhibition, I set off on the trike for a quick birl around the Perthshire countryside. Early on, it seemed a good idea to move off the main road onto a well signposted National Cycle Route; said route started with a good tarred surface, slowly degenerated into a dirt track and eventually petered out in the middle of a ploughed field. I retraced and continued up the main road. The wasted time meant that I had to curtail the later stages of the ride which, in turn, meant that I unexpectedly passed Huntingtower and, more importantly, missed out on coffee and scones.

The castle (or palace) was built by the Ruthven clan in stages during the 15th century but in 1582, the fourth Lord Ruthven kidnapped James the sixth (and first) and held him for ten months. After a second attempt to overthrow James he was executed and his property was forfeited to the crown. Four years later the castle was restored to the family but in 1600, two Ruthven brothers were involved in another plot to kill the king and were also executed; this time both the property was confiscated and the family name was abolished.

The reason I know the name, and was thus induced to stop for a quick blip, was that in my youth I enjoyed a television adaptation of John Buchan’s book, “Huntingtower,” a tale of mystery and espionage featuring Dickson McCunn, as the hero, supported by a bunch of scruffy young lads known as The Gorbals Diehards.” As far as I can make out, there is no connection between the Huntingtower of the novel and this castle.