Scotland · 15th century
Cawdor Castle is a castle in the parish of Cawdor in Nairnshire, Scotland. It is built around a 15th-century tower house, with substantial additions in later centuries. Originally a property of the Calder family, it passed to the Campbells in the 16th century. It remains in Campbell ownership, and is now home to Angelika Campbell, Dowager Countess Cawdor, stepmother of Colin Campbell, 7th Earl Cawdor.
The castle is best known for its literary connection to William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, in which the title character is made "Thane of Cawdor". However, the story is highly fictionalised, and the castle itself, which is never directly referred to in Macbeth, was built many years after the life of the 11th-century King Macbeth.
The castle is a category A listed building, and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.
Text adapted from “Cawdor Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cawdor Castle ranks #1,087 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #31 of the 226 mapped in Scotland. Founded 1454, it is older than 46% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 554 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 7,143 times in the last 60 days, more than 91% of the atlas. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Inverness, 18 km away. It is one of the 76 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Scottish Highlands. See how Scotland compares in the castle statistics.
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