Doune - the courtyard

The courtyard is the largest space at Doune Castle. This is chiefly because a planned suite of spacious lodging rooms which were supposed to cover the southern wall never were built. This courtyard was full of people attending the wedding at Swamp Castle; several of them were visitors shanghaied by the Pythons and "persuaded to dress up and act silly for the day" as Terry Jones put it in his audio commentary, which comes free with the admission. Which I didn't have to pay since I am a lifetime member of Historic Scotland. Nya, nya.


The main building. Kitchen tower to the left, gate tower to the right, main hall in the middle. You may see the scaffolding along the wall to the right. I think that's been there since I first visited in '07 or '08.


Up these stairs, Lancelot ran while slaughtering guards and wedding guests left and right.


From this tower, several prisoners fled after being imprisoned in the aftermath of the Battle of Falkirk in 1746. One of the escapees was one John Witherspoon, later a signer of the American Declaration of Independence. And yes, he is an ancestor of the actress Reese Witherspoon.