Drumlanrig Castle

Listen first. Gravel shifts under your feet. Somewhere behind you, rooks call from the tall trees. And in front of you, the stone has a warm colour, a soft pink that turns almost rose when the sun comes through the clouds. This is Drumlanrig Castle, in the green hills of Nithsdale, in southwest Scotland. Many people call it the Pink Palace. Once you see the stone in good light, the name makes sense.

That colour comes from local sandstone. Sandstone is a soft rock, made from grains of sand pressed together over a very long time. In this part of Scotland, it often carries a red or pink tone. Builders cut it, carved it, and set it in careful courses. So the castle does not stand apart from the land around it. It is made from the same ground you are standing on.

The building you see today rose in the late seventeenth century. It was built for William Douglas, the first Duke of Queensberry, one of the most powerful men in Scotland at the time. Work ran through the 1680s. Before this house, an older Douglas stronghold stood on the site. The new building kept something of a castle's shape — towers at the corners, a strong square plan — but it was made for show, comfort and status, not for war.

Look at the skyline. Turrets rise at the corners, with small domed tops and weather vanes. Rows of tall windows run across the front in a calm, regular pattern. This mix is part of the charm. The plan is formal and balanced, in the new style of the age. But the turrets look back to older Scottish tower houses. It is a building standing with one foot in each century.

Now look at the entrance. A grand staircase curves up from the forecourt to the main door, in the shape of a horseshoe. Visitors would climb it slowly, in full view, before they reached the Duke. It was theatre in stone. Even today, walking up those steps changes the way you arrive. You do not slip into this house. You are presented to it.

Here is a detail many visitors miss. Look closely at the carvings around the house — over doorways, in stonework, on ironwork. Again and again you will find a heart, often with a crown, and sometimes with wings. This is the Douglas heart. It recalls a famous story from the fourteenth century. After the death of King Robert the Bruce, Sir James Douglas carried the king's heart on crusade. The family has used the heart as its emblem ever since.

Now a story you should hold more lightly. Locals like to say that the first Duke spent only a single night in his new house after it was finished. One version says he was shocked by how much it had cost. Another says he simply did not like it. Whether either is true, nobody can say for certain. But it is a good tale to carry with you as you look at all this expensive stone.

The house has seen real history too. In the winter of 1745, Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, stayed here with his army during the retreat from England. He was leading the last great Jacobite rising — a rebellion to put the Stuart family back on the British throne. According to a popular tale, his soldiers did some damage while they were here. The details vary with the teller, so treat them as legend.

Today the castle belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and it is still a family home. Inside, it holds one of the most important private art collections in Britain. Among the paintings is a work by Rembrandt, An Old Woman Reading. The old woman's face glows with light that seems to come from the page in her hands. Seeing a painting like this in a lived-in house, rather than a gallery, feels very different.

The collection also holds a story worthy of a crime film. In 2003, thieves walked in with visitors and stole a small painting associated with Leonardo da Vinci, known as the Madonna of the Yarnwinder. It shows Mary with the infant Jesus, who holds a winder for spinning yarn shaped like a cross. The painting was missing for several years. In 2007, police recovered it in Glasgow. It is one of the most famous art thefts in Scotland.

Now turn away from the house and look outward. The castle sits in a wide estate of woods, fields, gardens and river valley. The River Nith runs nearby through the dale. Paths lead through the trees, and the estate is well known for its trails, including routes for mountain bikes. Tradition holds that one of the earliest Douglas firs in Britain grew here, linked to the brother of the plant collector David Douglas. The family of trees carries his name.

The bicycle has a local story too. Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith from this part of Dumfriesshire, is often credited with building an early pedal bicycle in the first half of the nineteenth century. The estate has honoured that connection with displays about cycling. So it is fitting that, on a summer day, you may hear the rattle of bike wheels on the forest trails. A house of dukes, and a quiet nod to a village blacksmith.

Before you move on, stand still for a moment in the forecourt. Look at how the light changes the stone, from dusty pink to deep rose and back again as clouds pass. Find one Douglas heart in the carving and keep it in mind. As you walk away, turn once and look back. The turrets will catch the sky, the rooks will still be calling, and the hills will close quietly around the Pink Palace.