With the exception of the key royal sites, such as Stirling and Edinburgh, few Scottish castles were located at strategic points, or were intended to house garrisons required to defend or subjugate towns. Instead they were primarily fortified dwelling houses, erected in an environment of weak Royal authority and endemic feuding between rival clans and groups, in both Highland and Lowland areas. Although some enceinte castles were developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, most defensive construction focused on the tower house, a distinctive vernacular style of Scottish fortification. This book examines the design, development, and purpose of these quintessentially Scottish buildings, and also covers larger sites such as Urquhart and Blackness.

With the exception of the key royal sites, such as Stirling and Edinburgh, few Scottish castles were located at strategic points, or were intended to house garrisons required to defend or subjugate towns. Instead they were primarily fortified dwelling houses, erected in an environment of weak Royal authority and endemic feuding between rival clans and groups, in both Highland and Lowland areas. Although some enceinte castles were developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, most defensive construction focused on the tower house, a distinctive vernacular style of Scottish fortification. This book examines the design, development, and purpose of these quintessentially Scottish buildings, and also covers larger sites such as Urquhart and Blackness.

A major new work on 800 clans and families of Scotland and their castles, houses, seats, and lands.

The true history behind the hit HBO fantasy show and George R. R. Martin’s bestselling Fire and Ice series. A wall in the distant north cuts the world in two. Ruthless sea-born warriors raid the coasts from their war galleys. A young nobleman and his kin are slaughtered under a banner of truce within a mighty castle. A warrior king becomes a legend when he smites his foe with one swing of his axe during a nation-forging battle. Yet this isn’t Westeros—it’s Scotland. Game of Thrones is history re-imagined as fantasy. The History Behind Game of Thrones turns the tables, using George R. R. Martin’s extraordinary fictional universe as a way to understand the driving forces and defining moments from Scotland’s story. Why were castles so important? Was there a limit to the powers a medieval king could use—or abuse? What was the reality of being under siege? Was there really anything that can compare to the destructive force of dragons? By joining forces, Westeros and Scotland hold the answers. Writer and presenter David C. Weinczok draws on a vast array of characters, events, places, and themes from Scottish history that echo Game of Thrones at every dramatic turn. Visit the castle where the real Red Wedding transpired, encounter the fearsome historical tribes beyond Rome’s great wall, learn how a blood-red heart became the most feared sigil in Scotland, and much more. By journey’s end, the cogs in the wheels of Martin’s world and Scottish history will be laid bare, as well as the stories of those who tried to shape—and sometimes even break—them.

Warfare between the clans of the Highlands in the late Middle Ages determined the course of history in this region of Scotland, and Chris Peers’ gripping account of it – and of the rivalry between the strongest clans – gives the reader a deep insight into this bloody, turbulent phase in the development of the far north of the British Isles. The battles he describes, all of them fought between the 1430s and the 1540s, were flash points in the long struggle for dominance between the leading clans of the region. The battles are reconstructed in vivid detail. The first, Druim n Coub, was fought in 1433 between the Mackays and the Sutherlands. Then came Bloody Bay, a sea fight between rival MacDonald factions, Blar na Parc between the MacDonalds and the Mackenzies, Creag an Airgid between the MacDonalds and the MacIains, Glendale between the MacDonalds and MacLeods, and Torran Dubh between alliances headed by the Mackays and Sutherlands. The final battle, Blar na Leine, fought between the MacDonalds and the Frasers in 1544, marked the end of an era. The subsequent fate of the leading clans, principally the MacDonalds and Mackays, is also covered in a narrative that gives the reader a fascinating new perspective of clan loyalties and conflict which still resonates today. As well as covering the fighting Chris Peers explains the way war in the Highlands was organized by the contending clans during the period – the strategies and tactics, weapons and armor they employed. The result is an absorbing all-round account of the military history of the Highlands before the clans eventually lost their independence.

The wholesale assimilation of Scots into the British Army is largely associated with the recruitment of Highlanders during and after the Seven Years War. This important new study demonstrates that the assimilation of Lowland and Highland Scots into the British Army was a salient feature of its history in the first half of the 18th century and was already well advanced by the outbreak of the Seven Years War. Scotland and the British Army, 1700-1750 analyses the wider policing functions of the British Army, the role of Scotland's militia and the development of Scotland's military roads and institutions to provide a fuller understanding of the purpose and complexity of Scotland's military organisation and presence in Scotland in the turbulent decades between the Glorious Revolution and the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie, which has been too often simplified as an army of occupation for the suppression of Jacobitism. Instead, Victoria Henshaw reveals the complexities and difficulties experienced by Scottish soldiers of all ranks in the British Army as nationality, loyalty and prejudice clouded Scottish desires to use military service to defend the Glorious Revolution and the Union of 1707.

From the time the Romans first set foot on England's shore in 55 B.C., the British Isles have faced a constant threat of foreign invasion. As a result, the landscapes of England, Scotland, and Ireland are dotted with ancient defensive fortifications as varied as their makers. Iron Age Celtic "hill forts," Roman castra and Hadrian's Wall, Anglo-Saxon dykes and Alfredian burhs, Norman mottes and stone-keeps, Edwardian castles, Irish tower houses--they all served to repel ancient intruders and many still stand as tangible relics of a remarkable past. This study chronicles the development of British fortifications from prehistoric times through the end of Richard III's reign in 1485, providing the history of each type of structure, relevant examples, and information on weapons and siege warfare. More than 250 illustrations vividly detail each ediface's construction and configuration.