Drifting off to sleep on my first night in Traquair House, “Scotland’s oldest inhabited house,” which dates to 1107, I thought I heard a voice whispering a question. “Protestant or Catholic?”
I tried to dodge the question. “Doesn’t matter nowadays,” I replied.
“It matters to me,” I thought I heard a voice whispering back.
Indeed, one could understand why it might still matter to spirits inhabiting Traquair House, a long-standing refuge for persecuted Catholics, nearly 100 acres located in the Borders area between Scotland and England. “This place is a time capsule,” Lucia wrote family.
Traquair was originally a hunting lodge for the kings and queens of Scotland in the 1100s. Part of the current 50-room structure date back to the 1400s. Surrounded by forest, it became a key defense post against British invasion. The Stuart family acquired the estate in 1491, and it has remained in the family ever since.
The House of Stuart (Stewart) is a European royal family that ruled Scotland from 1371 to 1603, and then James Stuart assumed the unified crown of England, Ireland and Scotland in 1603 as James I. Four Stuart kings and two Stuart queens ruled the British Isles until the death of Queen Anne in 1714. She had approved the 1701 Act of Settlement, which banned Catholics from serving as British monarchs. Anne, raised as an Anglican on the instruction of her uncle, King Charles II, was distrustful of Catholics and “popery,” including the religion of her own father, King James II.
Discrimination against Catholics in the British Isles and desire to restore the Catholic Stuarts to the throne set off a series of Jacobite Rebellions over nearly six decades. Traquair House took in a number of rebels over the years, and even contains a chapel where Catholic mass was celebrated during years when Catholic services were publicly banned.
The Stuarts of Traquair remain practicing Catholics. Catherine Maxwell Stuart, born in 1965, is the current Laird of Traquair, the 21st “lady of Traquair.” Her husband is Mark Muller Stuart, an international human rights lawyer. We didn’t meet them — they live nearby for the six months that the mansion serves as a bed and breakfast — but felt their influence and presence in the staff and in the exhibitions. We saw fliers for one of the international human rights conferences held regularly at Traquair.
“Since the family was Catholic, they were discriminated against by the Protestant (Anglican) government and mostly suffered from lack of money,” Lucia wrote family.
“The current owner’s grandmother lived here in WWII (husband and grown children away with war effort) without electricity or heating. After the war, in 1958, they got a grant to finally introduce the house to electricity. The last line of the original family died with an unmarried brother and sister expiring in 1871 and 1890, respectively. He put nettles in the guest bed of a marital prospect.
‘”Our door has a low hatch, big enough for a tray, and able to be opened only by the resident of the room. I wonder if it was installed by this eccentric bachelor. We get to go around the house, alone, before the museum opens.
Jim at the front.
The ancient steps from our bedroom.
Cloak of an early 18th century wife who used it to spirit her husband out of the Tower of London
“Outside our bedroom window, you could see there is a maze. I really don’t like mazes. I was afraid I’d have to give up, get on my stomach, and crawl under the hedge. Finally got out about 15 minutes after Jim.”
Lucia flinging her bag in despair, lost in the maze for more than half an hour and calling for directions on how to make her way out.
Lucia finally finds her way out of the maze at Traquair.
Acrobatic goat.
Colorful peacock.
Peacock in flight.
The grounds around Traquair are great for hikes. This looked almost like a druid worship spot.
Drill Deeper:
- Exploring the Oldest Inhabited House in Scotland (The Scotsman, 2013)
- A Beacon in the Borders (FT.com)
- The Real Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones’ Diary
- Traquair House Celebrates 50 Years of Brewing Beer.
- Celtic Castles.com: Traquair
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