Hatton Castle
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Hatton Castle stands on the lower part of Hatton Hill, the most easterly of the Sidlaw Hills, to the south of Newtyle in Angus, Scotland. The castle overlooks the wooded Den of Newtyle, and its views extend across Strathmore and include Ben Lawers and Schiehallion as well as the Angus and Glenshee hills. It was originally built in a typical Scottish "Z plan" tower house design, as a fortified country house or château. The present structure was created partly from materials from an earlier castle, owned at one time by Robert the Bruce. It was built in 1575 (reference Tranter book), commissioned by the Oliphant family, who were wealthy ship-owners originally from Ireland, who brought in French builders to modify the Z-plan design by adding a square staircase encasing the south-west tower, allowing visitors to enter the Great Hall on the first floor without the need for an external wooden staircase. Hatton Castle is the earliest Scottish castle to have such a feature (reference Charles McKean book). The Oliphants and their builders moved on to Fife where they built Kellie Castle.
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[edit] Etymology
The name Hatton Castle is almost certainly not the earliest name of this site. 'Hatton' is a contraction of 'Hall-toun', which in Scots means the farm (or ferm toun) with a Hall (or 'Ha'). Thus the Hall must have been there first, and the name Hatton actually refers to the adjacent farm, now known as Hatton Farm (the word farm is thus redundant, duplicating 'toun'). It is presumed by many that Hatton Castle was originally called Newtyle Castle, but it is not known if there was ever an 'Oldtyle'. In Scots, the word 'tyle' means a roofing stone (not restricted to fired clay tiles as in English). There are brick and tile factories on the River Tay near Dundee, but 'Newtyle' most likely relates to the sandstone quarried locally, and used extensively for building, dyking and roofing, as well as for carving into Pictish standing stones in Meigle, a village four miles away, which contains the Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum.
[edit] History
The earliest history of the general area demonstrates that Pictish peoples inhabited the area. For example discovery of the Eassie Stone in this region indicates sophisticated Pictish carvers who embraced Christianity about the year 600 AD.[1]
A variety of people lived in Hatton Castle after the Oliphants, including at least one bishop. It is recorded by Marian McNeill in her book The Scots Cellar, quoting A. Hislop, Book of Scottish Anecdote, that the old Scots custom of compulsory hospitality was demonstrated at Hatton Castle: "The lairds of Newtyle used to keep a cannon pointed to the road near by their old castle, so as to compel the wayfarers to come in and be regaled". A cannon is still there today.
Hatton Castle was de-roofed in about 1720, after the 1715 Jacobite rising, when it was replaced by the Italian-style Belmont Castle in Meigle, which is now a Church of Scotland residential home. Hatton Castle gradually became encrusted by ivy and a home to pigeons and jackdaws, until it was sold by the Kinpurnie Estate for restoration into a family home. This was done faithfully, with help from Historic Scotland and many others, so its charm remains much as it was in 1575, but now with under-floor heating and double-glazed windows, extending to all four floors. The exterior is harled with the traditional pinkish lime-based hand-daub. It still has the strong room which, in ancient times, would have served as a bank for valuables for local people - one of the functions of a Hall. There is a 'priest hole' in what was originally the laird's bedroom. Not so much for priests, one suspects, as for young ladies who might have needed a secret exit route. Hatton Castle has an interesting Great Hall, almost a double-cube measuring 34x17x17 feet, which has stunning acoustics. As in the 16th century, music is again played most days in the Great Hall, and some memorable dances and concerts have been held. In 2007, Hatton Castle hosted the first ever performance in Europe of a Japanese biwa and chant group, supported by the Scottish harp duo Sileas.
No record exists of the gardens of Hatton Castle, but a house of this scale would certainly have had fine gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries. The buildings of Hatton Farm probably stand on what was originally a garden to the south of Hatton Castle. Until the 1990s when the current owner took it on, Hatton Castle stood in a gently sloping field full of sheep, cattle and a gaggle of geese from the adjacent curling pond. Sir James Cayzer, from the neighbouring Kinpurnie Estate planted standard trees in the surrounding parkland, and a remarkable garden is now emerging for Hatton Castle, featuring some extraordinary dry-stane dyking, some of it three metres high. This is the work of master-dyker Duncan Armstrong (known as Tam). An orchard of ancient Scottish apple varieties has been planted, as well as mulberry trees, and the sunken vegetable garden contains fig trees and artichokes.
The eastern boundary of the garden of Hatton Castle is the Dundee and Newtyle Railway, which was the first railway line to open in Scotland. It was built to be able to transport flowers grown in Newtyle to Dundee and thence by ship to Edinburgh. The 'bulb factory' was adjacent to Newtyle station, which still exists.
Hatton Castle is now home to the Lean family, who have restored it over recent years with great care, relying on the skill of specialist castle-restorer Gordon Matthew (known as Kenny).
