“This Noble Ruin:” Doune Castle’s Relationship to Popular Culture and Heritage ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to The Honors Tutorial College Ohio University _________________________________________ In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in History __________________________________________ by Kristin O. Osborne April 2018 Osborne 2 This thesis has been approved by The Honors Tutorial College and the Department of History __________________________ Dr. Jaclyn Maxwell Associate Professor, History Thesis Adviser ___________________________ Dr. Miriam Shadis Honors Tutorial College, Director of Studies, History ___________________________ Cary Frith Dean, Honors Tutorial College Osborne 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………...…….…..4 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….……...5 CHAPTER ONE: The History of Doune Castle and its Preservation………….15 The Dukes of Albany and the Origins of Doune Castle 16 Dower House and Royal Castle 21 Doune Castle During the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 24 Doune Castle Throughout the Nineteenth Century 27 The Twentieth and Twenty-First Century 31 CHAPTER TWO: History for the Masses……………………………………...37 The Literature of Sir Walter Scott’s Doune Castle 38 Victorian Restoration 47 Done at Doune: Film and Television Produced at Doune Castle 50 CHAPTER THREE: The Tourist’s Experience at Doune Castle…………….…60 Film-Induced Tourism 61 Heritage Tourism 68 The Incorporation of Film and Heritage into the Tourists’ Experience 72 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………82 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….85 Osborne 4 Acknowledgments This research project would not have been possible without the immense support of my advisors and mentors. I would first like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Jaclyn Maxwell for having faith in this project and me. Her incredible support and willingness to help throughout this project enabled it to come to fruition. I would also like to thank my Director of Studies, Dr. Miriam Shadis for fostering my love of History and pushing me to always produce my best work. She has been a constant source of encouragement throughout my undergraduate experience and I greatly appreciate her efforts. I would also like to thank Dr. Geoffrey Buckley in the Geography Department who introduced me to heritage tourism and historical geography. His mentorship and love of Scotland inspired this project and I appreciate the time he spent broadening my horizons as a historian. Lastly, this project would never have been possible without the support of Dr. Erin Osborne-Martin, Senior Commissioning Editor at John Wiley & Sons. Her guidance during my time studying in Edinburgh and editing expertise truly made this project great. I also owe a great deal of thanks to the grants and departmental funding that enabled me to conduct research in Edinburgh. This project would not have been possible without the Harvey and Boston Research Fellowship awarded by the History Department and the Dean’s Discretionary Fund awarded by the Honors Tutorial College. Osborne 5 Introduction On a small hill overlooking the Teith River in Stirlingshire, Scotland sits a fourteenth century castle that has been an integral part of Scottish history. It is just a few miles from the royal palaces of Stirling and Edinburgh Castle. Doune Castle, a ‘noble ruin’ according to Sir Walter Scott, is one of Scotland’s many treasures. It offers visitors a walk though Scotland’s legendary past and a chance to connect with some of the most famous figures in Scottish history. “Scotland’s Uncrowned King” Robert, Duke of Albany built it between 1380 and 1400 as a testament to his power and as a line of defense between the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland.1 Throughout its long history, Doune Castle changed hands many times and acted as a residence for several important political figures. It became a royal residence and was significantly updated by James VI, who enjoyed using it as a hunting lodge. It remained a royal residence for some time before becoming part of the earldom of Moray through marriage in the sixteenth century. Doune eventually fell into disrepair but was given a new life by the 14th Earl of Moray in 1888 when he decided to restore the castle.2 The work done during this time was hailed as one of the best examples of restoration in the United Kingdom. It came at a time of overzealous restoration and work that was not true to the time period in which it was built. While Doune Castle does have some anachronisms in the restoration, namely the Lord’s Hall, it is largely original and very well preserved. The Victorians had certain ideas of what the past looked like and in their attempts at restoration they often opted for a more romantic view of history. This romantic view comprises of idealized imagery, 1 W. Douglas Simpson, Doune Castle Guidebook (Edinburgh: 1962), 6. 2 Simpson, Doune Castle Guidebook, 12. Osborne 6 love, and glossing over the more gruesome tales in history. Many heritage sites in existence today are a product of Victorian restoration and their problematic views of the past. However, this restoration craze marks a transition in society from using heritage sites as convenient buildings to be used again for different purposes to preserving them as important hallmarks of national heritage. Instead of reusing historic buildings for practical purposes they began to emerge as museums. The Victorians and Edwardians largely invented the notion of British heritage and created entire industries around it. The heritage sector in Scotland accounts for over £2.3 billion in contributions to the Scottish economy and employs over 55,000 full time workers.3 Doune Castle’s involvement with popular media began in 1814 with the publication of Waverley by Sir Walter Scott.4 Doune Castle was heavily featured in this novel and the plot was based off of an escape that actually happened at the castle during the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. The book is considered the first historical novel and launched a new genre of literature and subsequently historical films and television series. Historical fiction has been a significant part of Doune Castle’s narrative but with the advent of film media it gained a new role. Doune Castle acts as a filming location for several movies and television series, most notably Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Outlander, and Game of Thrones. This piece of Doune Castle’s narrative has become increasingly lucrative in recent years due to a huge number of fans visiting in search of an almost religious experience associated with their favorite media. This trend was started in 3 Historic Environment Scotland and Built Environment Forum Scotland. Scotland’s Historic Environment Audit 2016- Summary. Edinburgh: Historic Environment Scotland, 2016. 4. 4 Sir Walter Scott, Waverley (Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg, 2016), https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5998/5998-h/5998-h.htm. Osborne 7 1975 when the Monty Python Comedy Group chose to film their cult-classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the then privately-owned castle. From this point on Doune Castle began a new chapter in its life as a prominent filming location. HBO and STARZ would later catch on to this trend and film episodes of their major hits Game of Thrones and Outlander at the castle. From this media emerged two narratives of Doune Castle: a historical and a fictional one. Historic Environment Scotland, Doune Castle’s governing body, is still struggling with how to merge and integrate these two narratives into the tourist’s experience at the castle. Film-induced tourism has affected Doune Castle greatly. Fans from all over the world come to Doune Castle in order to pay homage to their favorite movies and series. After Outlander was released in 2014 Doune Castle has seen a significant rise in visitors. Just after the release the castle gained 44% more visitors than it had in 2013. These numbers continue to rise and in 2016 the castle reported 84,972 visitors, a 31% increase from 2015.5 Historic Environment Scotland has dubbed this the “Outlander Effect”, meaning that popular media can have a huge influence on heritage sites. This thesis explores the relationship between the historical narrative of Doune Castle and the popular media that used the castle as a filming location. It is important to understand how history is presented in both physical and visual ways. In today’s culture, historical television series, film, and tourist experiences are how most people access 5 “Historic sites break tourism record with four million visitors,” About Us, Historic Environment Scotland, accessed February 15, 2017, https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/historic-sites-break-tourism-record- with-four-million-visitors/. Osborne 8 history and gain an understanding of it. Therefore, the merging of history and media is something that requires historians’ attention. Doune Castle offers an informative case study for how media affects people’s perception of history. By looking at how the two narratives of Doune Castle are integrated into the tourist’s experience at the castle we can begin to understand how heritage sites approach the issue of competing narratives. Understanding the factors that make Doune Castle one of the most popular heritage sites in Scotland can help to facilitate historical education and help other sites achieve the same success. Historiography of Doune Castle, Film-Induced Tourism, and Scottish Heritage There has been a great deal of work published about Doune Castle, film-induced tourism, and Scottish heritage, but combining them into an interdisciplinary analysis is new to this historiography. The scholarly source that is used most often throughout this thesis is William Fraser’s book The Dukes of Albany and Their Castle of Doune. It is the most comprehensive book on Doune Castle’s history and includes several illustrations that will be used in this essay. This book was published in Edinburgh in 1881 and is a shorter version of The Red Book of Menteith by the same author.6 Fraser’s goal with the book is simple: provide a history of the Dukes of Albany and their castle.