{"id":211,"date":"2026-08-16T11:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/?p=211"},"modified":"2026-08-16T11:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:49:24","slug":"elcho-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/?p=211","title":{"rendered":"Elcho Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:69% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"954\" height=\"705\" src=\"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Elcho.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-212 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Elcho.jpg 954w, https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Elcho-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Elcho-768x568.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 954px) 100vw, 954px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are recently back from a trip to Scotland. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We visited Perth museum (among many interesting exhibits it has some 17th costumes, which may work their way into the books), the Crannoch Centre (which I can highly recommend, but is about 2,000 years early for my period) and Elcho Castle. This is a &#8216;fortified tower house&#8217; built by the Wemyss family around 1560. Still a century before my books, but still in use at that time, more for a &#8216;second home&#8217; than as a fortified residence. Well equipped for both owners and guests (at least 13 privies, including some &#8216;en-suite&#8217;!), with grand views over the surrounding countryside and down to the Tay from the rooftop walkways, it seems to have been a holiday home for the Wemyss family, one of the most prominent in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;d like to work it into a future book, particularly as it&#8217;s not too far from Abernethy, notionally the Scottish seat of Sarah\/Chas&#8217;s grandfather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The castle represents a transition from the Medieval keep to the Early Modern mansion. Within the outer walls (now gone) were probably ornamental, herb and kitchen gardens, as well as orchards &#8211; the orchards now there are recent planting, but represent traditional varieties of apples, pears and plum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are recently back from a trip to Scotland. We visited Perth museum (among many interesting exhibits it has some 17th costumes, which may work their way into the books), the Crannoch Centre (which I can highly recommend, but is about 2,000 years early for my period) and Elcho Castle. This is a &#8216;fortified tower [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daparsons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}