I got married to Nicole at Doune Castle in 2008. It was a great day and we had the reception a few miles along the road at Bridge of Allan. I had never explored the various paths around the town and decided to build a little circular route. Doune is traditionally part of Perthshire, currently administered by Stirling Council and uses a Falkirk postcode. Make of that what you will. The population is a couple of thousand and the town and castle stand on the River Teith. Once known for the manufacture of pistols, the local economy now relies heavily on tourism, boosted significantly by the regular appearance of the castle in the worldwide smash TV series Outlander.
I started at the Mercat Cross in the town centre where several streets intersect. I made my way along the main road towards the site of the old railway station. The line closed in 1965 and came off the Stirling to Perth route (which still exists today) at Dunblane. It ran on to Callander and eventually Oban. The line crossed the Glasgow to Fort William and Mallaig railway at Crianlarich. During the rationalisation of the 1960s, it was decided to retain the portion from Crianlarich to Oban and link this exclusively to the Glasgow line, while closing the tracks via Doune and Callander. Present day services leave Glasgow Queen Street for Crianlarich, where the train splits for Oban or Mallaig. Doune is now a railway desert, although the station house still stands as a private residence. The remainder of the station site has been lost to a modern housing scheme. I entered the Doune Ponds Nature Reserve - a leafy oasis that occupies an old gravel quarry. A network of accessible paths has been created by local volunteers. Meadow and picnic areas coexist alongside patches that have been left wild to encourage bio-diversity of all types. A bird hide overlooks the largest of the five ponds and I observed swans resting on the little island in the middle. A large stone stood just outside the reserve. Known as the Trysting Stone, it was used as a counting position at the large cattle fairs or "trysts" held in previous centuries. The stone was moved a short distance to its present location at the entrance to the nature reserve and now has its own enclosure and information board. I wanted to connect with the mile and a half of walkable railway trackbed and I had to retrace my steps past the Mercat Cross before cutting up a narrow street next to a church. The tarmac railway path leads eastwards out of town and is a popular route among locals. There is no chance of the rails ever being reinstated as both Dunblane Junction and Doune Station have been covered by new houses. It is a similar story in Callander, where chunks of the trackbed have been swallowed up. There were a couple of nice viewpoints along the old line, including the well-maintained allotments (pictured below). Doune sits in a valley but the Trossachs Hills aren't far away.
The path eventually petered out at a minor road and I turned tail and walked back towards Doune, cutting across a park and dropping down to the castle at the other end of town from the old railway station. When Nicole and I married, Doune Castle was quite well known as a filming location for British movie Monty Python & the Holy Grail, released in 1975. A famous scene involves the knights approaching the castle walls, knocking coconut shells together to mimic the sound of horses hooves. Apparently the film's modest budget precluded the deployment of genuine equine characters. This joke actually appeared in the title of the German-language version Die Ritter der Kokosnuß (Knights of the Coconut). I recall the funny moment when the soldiers defending the castle launched a dead cow from a catapult on the ramparts. When visiting the venue prior to the wedding, the guide informed us there had been a few Monty Python themed nuptials, including the bride and groom entering to the clip-clop of coconuts held by the assembled guests. I can only assume that Outlander has been a complete game changer and is probably a driving force behind wedding bookings at Doune. General visitor numbers will have gone through the roof as fans come to see "Castle Leoch" as it's known in the series. Certainly, the upgrade of the car-park must have cost a few quid. Only limited visitor access is permitted inside the castle compound at the moment due to work being carried out on the masonry. My intention was simply to have a look at the building from the outside and follow the path that led down to the banks of the River Teith. Firstly, I took a short signed detour to a historic mill beside the Ardoch Burn. The mill dates from at least 1798 and continued to operate until the late 1930s.
Doune Castle has an imposing 100-foot gatehouse and one of the best examples in Scotland of a preserved great hall. I did a circuit of the exterior walls and found a peaceful bench by the Teith. As I passed the rear of the castle I encountered a group of Americans who were discussing Outlander. There's no escaping! Further research revealed the castle has also appeared in Game of Thrones. No doubt this has ramped up the TV tourism by another notch. The present form of the building emerged in the late 14th century. Ownership passed to the crown in 1425 and the castle was used as a royal hunting lodge and dower house. In the later 16th century, Doune became the property of the Earls of Moray. The castle saw military action during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Jacobite risings. The structure was ruined by 1800 but restoration works were carried out in late Victorian times and it is now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland. The site is naturally defended on three sides by steeply sloping ground and by the two rivers to east and west. The castle forms an irregular pentagon in plan. Mary Queen of Scots stayed here on several occasions. Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupied the complex during the 1745 rebellion but the government took control after the Battle of Falkirk, utilising the castle as a prison. Quite a chequered history! This completed my little historic tour of Doune.
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