Castle Huntly is a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, 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, correc ...

under the name ''

HMP HMP may refer to: Science and technology * Haughton–Mars Project * Host media processing, a telephony processing technique * Human Microbiome Project * Harmonic mean p-value, a technique for combining statistical tests Computing * Heterogen ...

Castle Huntly''. It is located approximately west of Dundee in the Carse of Gowrie,

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland an ...

, 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 Du ...

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

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

. 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 James II (16 October 1430 – 3 August 1460) was King of Scots from 1437 until his death in 1460. The eldest surviving son of James I of Scotland, he succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of six, following the assassination of his father. ...

. The castle changed hands in 1614, when the then

Earl of Strathmore Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is a title in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was first created as Earl of Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland in 1606 for Patrick Lyon. In 1677, the designation of the earldom c ...

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 Sout ...

. 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 A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school. Borstals were ...

, 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 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 settleme ...

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