Search For The Real Sir William Wallace! A 900 + Year Old Castle In Perthshire, Scotland!

Another day and another adventure and today I'm in the deep dark forests of Perthshire in search of a castle which is almost a thousand years old. Visited by both Scottish and English royalty it was captured by the English at the end of the 13th century until they had an unexpected visitor by the name of Sir William Wallace. You're not going to want to miss this. My god this place is incredible and walking in the footsteps of Scottish and English royalty and this is almost a thousand years old. So welcome to Perthshire in the autumn and before we head to Conclaven Castle this is the spectacular McClure Beach Hedge. This is the longest and tallest beach hedge in the world. Over 100 feet tall and half a kilometre in length and incredibly it was planted in 1745. The hedge was planted as a boundary for the McClure estate at the request of Jean Mercer and her husband Robert Murray. The men who planted it went off to fight for Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 and they fought at Culloden the following April in 1746 where they were all killed and it's said that the hedge grows towards the heavens in memory of the men who planted it. The biggest problem that you've got when you come here is parking because there is none really. The nearest is a little lay-by just by the beach hedge. It's only big enough for about five cars and you've got to walk on the road but once you get to this junction here which is signposted Conclaven, Murthley, Stanley and the Balathy House Hotel you can turn off to the right and that's going to take you towards the old Conclaven Bridge. I'm going to take a walk through here to save me from being knocked down on the road. The road to the old Conclaven Bridge is just off to my left hand side so I'm going to take this down towards the bridge and then I'm actually going to take you underneath the bridge so we can have a look at it because it's pretty spectacular and this is early November so the leaves are full of colour. Perthshire is known as big tree country because some of the oldest most mature trees in Scotland are found in Perthshire. So just here on the right you've got the remnants of an old gateway and this is probably from the very early 19th century and that's an avenue with these two huge big gate pillars which would have been an entrance probably to McClure House which is about half a mile straight ahead of us but you can see it's lined with these beautiful trees sycamores and beech and lime trees and look at the colours. It's a beautiful time of year to explore Scotland. So the sun's kind of in my face at the moment but McClure House is over on my right on the other side of those trees. McClure House dates in its present form from about 1678 but it's been remodelled in the 18th and the 19th centuries as well and the likelihood is that there was probably a house there in the back in the 13 or even 1400s and the lands have been owned by the Mercer family since 1363 and they've got a title which is the Marquess of Lansdowne and they still live there today. They own most of the estate which is about 4,000 acres. They farm about half of it and the rest of is run by tenants for its forestry and by tenants I don't mean the lagger, I mean as in they rent it out to tenants as landlords. So you can just start to see the bridge coming through which is the bridge known as the Kinclaven Bridge which spans over the River Tay. Thankfully the sun is just about to go behind that cloud which will help to see it in all its glory so thankfully the sun is just disappearing slightly which will give us a better angle to appreciate this beautiful bridge. So this is the Kinclaven Bridge and it was built in 1905 and until it was built the only way to get across the river here was by a ferry and look at that for a view. Spectacular, absolutely stunning. So that is the River Tay and this beautiful bridge of six arches as I say was built in 1905. I'm going to pass underneath it to give you a view from the other side without the sun being in our eyes but look how peaceful it seems and as I say all the beautiful colours of the trees, stunning. Now just for a moment take a look at that. How is that for stunning? Unbelievably beautiful, unbelievable. That is picture postcard perfect. The sun's just popped out at the right moment just to show it off. So there it is the Kinclaven Bridge built in 1905. So the river is the River Tay which is the longest river in Scotland and just about 100 yards down here on the left hand side is where the River Islay which is a tributary of the Tay, that's where it joins. So this is a really really popular salmon fishing spot for that reason. Now it's also a site that's of huge strategic importance because of the river. The river 120 miles long cuts right through the centre of Scotland and was a huge barrier through history. People have been travelling through this area for as long as there's been humans here, probably 10 or 12,000 years and there was a ferry here until 1905. So the only way to get across this river was by boat and that's the reason that the castle sits on the high ground just in behind those trees because it was here to control movement of people and goods. There are days when I think to myself that Scotland couldn't get any more beautiful and then you get a day like this. Unbelievable. Utterly, utterly gorgeous. I know it's a word that I use far too often but you can see why. Incredible. The colours, the blue sky, the little cottage there with the chimney, that's actually the old ferryman's cottage. So until they built that bridge in 1905 that's where the ferryman lived with his family and they would have had a little boat here with a pulley system that they were taking people over to the other side. Now the fort is just tucked in behind those trees, the castle, which is called Kinclaven Castle and it's almost a thousand years old but I just saw a big salmon splash there. Do you see it again? Right out there in the water. Right, I'm going to head back towards the bridge and then we're going to walk over it and then we're going to make our way up to Kinclaven Castle. So to get to Kinclaven Castle we're going to pass back underneath Kinclaven Bridge which is right in front of us and when we go underneath this archway we're going to turn to the right hand side and there's a little set of steps which is going to take us up onto the bridge and onto the road but you have to be very careful because there is no pavement so don't be taking any risks and be very careful of cars. Here are the steps right here and there are traffic lights on the bridge so cars will come from one direction only but it will chop and change and as you'll see cars are flying right past so don't jump out onto the road. As I mentioned, use caution. There is a very tight little strip just at the side of the road and if a car comes, tuck right into the edge as close as you can get and more importantly enjoy the scenery. Look at that. Honestly it's like a work of art. It really is. Now as you come off the bridge on the opposite shore you will spot that there's a massive car park and you would think well why don't I just park my car there and the reason is it's private. That's the old ferryman's house that I mentioned earlier on and that's McClure Fishing so they own the salmon fishing rights here and the car park is private so do not, under any circumstances, park there. Now it's also the most dangerous stretch of road because there's a very tight bend up ahead of me and there's no pavement so be very careful, very very careful. Now I'm going to fast forward this little bit without any audio just to show you where you jump into the woods to get to the castle. Just at this point here as the trees start to disappear on the right hand side is where I jump over the fence. There's no barbed wire and from here we start to make a little walk. Now there's every chance we might spook a deer so be careful, don't get afraid which I usually always do. So as I mentioned before Sir William Wallace, our very own Braveheart and ironically thanks to a movie there are lots of misconceptions about William Wallace. The first major misconception is that he wasn't Braveheart. Braveheart was actually a reference to Robert the Bruce but a certain director decided to incorporate Braveheart as the name for the movie. Now what do we know about William Wallace? Well the answer is not a lot. Thanks to Edward I most of Scotland's documentation was stolen in the late 12th and early 13th century but what we do know is William Wallace was almost certainly the son of a man called Alan Wallace who was minor nobility in Scotland. He was either from a place called Ellerslie in Ayrshire or Elderslie which was in Renfrew, both of them to the southwest of Glasgow. Now he comes to prominence following the death of one of Scotland's kings, a man called Alexander III. He died in 1286 and shortly thereafter is when William Wallace appears suddenly on the scene. In May of 1297 he kills an English high sheriff, the Sheriff of Lanark. In May 1297 a man called William de Hesslerig and he then begins a rebellion against English rule. Now in June of 1297 William Wallace raids Scone which was the ancient crowning place of the kings of Scotland and shortly thereafter he pursues knights on horseback from Perth some 15 miles south of where we currently are all the way to their castle, the castle here at King Claven. Now King Claven was actually originally a Scottish castle. It was built under the rule of a king of Scotland called Malcolm Canmore and he ruled from 1057 until 1093. But during what were called the first English wars or sorry the first Scottish wars of independence against the English, the English seized many castles in Scotland including this one. We can almost just see the castle through the trees in the distance. So this is a castle not only was it visited by William Wallace, Sir William Wallace, but Scottish kings and queens and even a king of England called Edward I Longshanks all stayed here so it's got a huge amount of history. Now all around this part of the castle there are various lumps and bumps and terraces which are partly defensive terraces and defensive ditches but also probably the remnants of some old gardens, old vegetable gardens and now you can see what is left of the castle. It doesn't look like much from here but it gets more impressive when we get inside. I just love the way that it literally grows out of the of the forest. It's been overtaken by moss and lichen and trees and vegetation but it is over 900 years old so this would have been the entrance straight in front of us. We know from written records that there was a drawbridge so there would have been a ditch here and then a drawbridge which is taking you through into the main castle itself. Now you can get an idea of the importance of this castle by the thickness of the walls which are pretty incredible. They're over two meters thick they're about seven foot six in thickness. Now originally they would have been faced with stone but most of stone has been robbed over the centuries for people to build houses. Why go and quarry your own stone when you can steal someone else's? So you'll see just here some of the original faced stone still exists but as you go higher up it's been stolen, it's been robbed away. So immediately here would have been a stairway that would have taken you up onto the upper parts of a walkway that would have completely surrounded the castle. It's relatively small it's almost perfectly square it's about 130 feet by 130 feet and in each of the four corners there would have been a square tower but you can see in part some of the masonry that still exists is 30 feet in height. Quite incredible. Now once you'd come through the main entrance into the courtyard immediately on my left there would have been a stable block so that's where you would have left your horse and there would have been buildings around all of the walls. Over here the likelihood is there would have been a kitchen and the reason the kitchen was probably here is because straight in front of us now you'll see the remnants of three windows and that was the great hall that's where the parties happened and next to the great hall would have been the lodgings for the laird. Now the great hall was a pretty big building it was about 25 meters in length which is getting on for 80 feet and there would have been roughly a six meter wide building which is 20 feet and as I mentioned before square towers in each of the corners you can see the remnants of one of these towers just here and look at the view so that's the river Islay that we can see through there which I walked down to earlier and immediately in front of us running left to right is the river Tay so you can see why they chose this spot to build a castle. You can keep a very close eye on what's happening, who's going where and more importantly you can tax people. So this would have been the great hall just here again you can see those big windows three big windows off to my left hand side. Now we know that lots of royalty stood here and lived here and stayed here in the days of old. Now the suspicion is that in its present form this castle was built around about 1215 but it was built on the site of an earlier castle as I mentioned before which is from the middle of the 11th century and the reason it was rebuilt seems to be because of rising issues with England and also the fact that a fort at Perth was badly damaged by flooding in 1209 Now Alexander the second orders the rebuild and the re-fortification of this castle around about 1215 and he actually stayed here on two occasions that we know of as well in February and March of 1248 and the reason we know he stayed here is because we've got the written records of the because he had a huge amount of alcohol delivered on both occasions ahead of his arrival. Now we also know that in 1296 the English captured the castle and Edward the first Longshanks would have stayed in this very building. Fast forward a year and that's when William Wallace comes to visit and at the time it's believed there were around about 30 English knights based here but there were also women and children and once William Wallace managed to get inside the castle he slaughtered everyone. One thing about William Wallace was he did not like the English and he took no prisoners. Now there is a little doorway just over here which is called the postum also known as a sally port. This is original from around about 1215 and this would have been the secret way in and out of the castle. The postum gate was literally the back door so this is where you could sneak in and out without anyone spotting. So there would have been a doorway right where I'm standing there would have been a further doorway here that would be where the door was and there's a little window immediately on the left so you can look to see who's here. Now you imagine this all overgrown with ivy and moss it would almost be invisible and the purpose of this door was to get in and out the castle without people seeing you. It was a way that if the castle was under attack at the front door you could escape but there's also a saying in military terms which is to sally forth and the word sally forth is a military term to basically attack your enemy and it gets its name from this little door a sally port. So when your attackers around the corner attacking the main entrance which is the weak spot you send a small amount of soldiers out of this sally port they sneak around the side of the castle and they attack your attackers when they least expect it. So that's where the phrase to sally forth comes from but it's a fairly spectacular castle that almost no one visits very few people know about but is steeped in history. This is us back to the main entrance again where the drawbridge would be and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine this in its heyday. From over here again you get views over the bridge at King Cleveland that we passed over and also down onto the river which is the reason the castle was here. So why is the castle in ruin? Well William Wallace after he captured the castle from the English in 1297 he killed everyone and then he stayed here for seven days demolishing the castle so it couldn't be reused by the English but we had something called the Second Wars of Independence and that's when England reinvaded in the 1320s and the English Edward III was the king by that time he instructs soldiers to rebuild, refortify this castle and that's exactly what they do. However in 1336 the Scots recapture the castle and over the following centuries, following decades they reinforce, they rebuild until eventually it's not really required and in 1488 the castle and the lands pass to a man called the Duke of Montrose and then Mary Queen of Scots she passes the castle and the lands onto a lady called Elizabeth Chalmers and it seems that at that point the castle falls into disuse and disrepair and it's been a ruin ever since but what a story it's got to tell and these autumn colours it is pretty spectacular what a view I'll go and have a little look around the other side just so that you've seen all of the exterior of the castle so again you get that vantage point over the river crossing you can also see this rectangular terrace directly below me here this flat terrace of land the suggestion is that that was gardens that's where they would have grown vegetables and fruit but in actual fact a lot of the trees that are in the courtyard growing in here these are all fruit trees these are fruit trees probably seeded from hundreds and hundreds of years ago again you can see the footprint of where the square tower would have been which has been completely destroyed and there it is the southern wall of the castle and the three big windows of the great hall unbelievably beautiful it really is I just love the way that nature has taken over Well hopefully you enjoyed my little virtual tour of King Claven Castle in Perthshire if you like what you see and you're not already subscribed then please hit that button and hopefully I'll see you all on my next virtual tour. Take care and thanks for watching