Castle Huntly is a castle in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, now used as a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

under the name '' HMP Castle Huntly''. It is located approximately west of Dundee in the

Carse of Gowrie The Carse of Gowrie is a stretch of low-lying country in the southern part of Gowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It stretches for about along the north shore of the Firth of Tay between Perth and Dundee. The area offers high-quality agricultu ...

, Perth and Kinross, close to the shore of the

Firth of Tay The Firth of Tay (; gd, Linne Tatha) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow) empties. The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, City of Dun ...

, and can be seen from the main road linking Dundee and

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. The castle sits on top of a rocky outcrop surrounded by what is now farmland. In ancient times this land was marshy wilderness and the decision to locate the castle on the rock may have been taken with a view to the castle's defensive position in mind. The Governor is Paula Arnold.

History

Lord Gray of Fowlis built Castle Huntly around 1452, under licence from James II of Scotland. The castle changed hands in 1614, when the then Earl of Strathmore acquired it and changed its name to Castle Lyon. Two women — Apollonia Kickius and a Mrs Morris — worked as painters at Castle Lyon in the late 17th century. In the 1770s, the widow of the 7th Earl of Strathmore sold the castle to George Paterson, of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. He changed the name back to Castle Huntly. The castle left the hands of the Paterson family in 1946, after the death of Colonel Adrian Gordon Paterson, when his wife sold the castle to the government. In 1947, the castle was refurbished and became a borstal, then a young offenders' institution before becoming an open prison for adult male prisoners. It is now known as ''HMP Castle Huntly'' and is the only

open prison An open prison (open jail) is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment w ...

in Scotland. Most prisoners at the establishment are low-risks serving short sentences of up to two years, although some are long-sentence prisoners approaching the end of their sentences.

References

{{Authority control Castle Huntly

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlement ...

Category A listed buildings in Perth and Kinross Listed castles in Scotland Listed prison buildings in Scotland Reportedly haunted locations in Scotland Government agencies established in 1947 1947 establishments in Scotland