3-021-126 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Entrance gate, Cawdor Castle, 1868. This old Scottish baronial residence, the family seat of the Earls of Cawdor, is pleasantly situated amidst woods and water, at the base of a far-stretching range of hills, in the county of Nairn...We still enter by the ancient drawbridge, within which is an open paved court, roomy enough to accommodate a strong body of defenders; and if they were driven to retreat, there are loopholes in the massive tower behind from which to harass the enemy and protect the entrance. The walls are nine feet thick, built of the stone on which the castle stands...A wing was added in 1510, and another at various times in the seventeenth century. It has never ceased to be occupied; but, fortunately, no attempt has been made to transform the castle into a modern-looking residence...The family of Cawdor - or Calder, as it used to be, and still often is, called - is of great antiquity. In the female line it goes back beyond that "most worthy Thane of Cawdor" familiar to the readers of "Macbeth".' From "Illustrated London News", 1868.