• Mary Queen of Scots Tour

    Mary Queen of Scots Tour

    Mary seemed destined for glory, succeeding to the Scottish throne at only 5 days old and crowned Queen of France as a teenager, yet she died a prisoner, exiled from her country. Visit the Scottish castles and palaces of her reign and the English stately homes where her cousin, Elizabeth I, kept her imprisoned for 19 years.

  • Mary Queen of Scots Tour

    Mary Queen of Scots Tour

    Mary seemed destined for glory, succeeding to the Scottish throne at only 5 days old and crowned Queen of France as a teenager, yet she died a prisoner, exiled from her country. Visit the Scottish castles and palaces of her reign and the English stately homes where her cousin, Elizabeth I, kept her imprisoned for 19 years.

  • Mary Queen of Scots Tour

    Mary Queen of Scots Tour

    Mary seemed destined for glory, succeeding to the Scottish throne at only 5 days old and crowned Queen of France as a teenager, yet she died a prisoner, exiled from her country. Visit the Scottish castles and palaces of her reign and the English stately homes where her cousin, Elizabeth I, kept her imprisoned for 19 years.

Mary, Queen of Scots Tour

A romantic yet tragic figure, Mary seemed destined for glory, succeeding to the Scottish throne at only 5 days old, crowned Queen of France as a teenager and hailed by many as England's true Queen, yet she died a lonely figure, exiled from her country and the son she last saw as a baby. Involvement in a series of ill-fated plots resulted in imprisonment for over half her life and execution by her cousin Elizabeth I.

Highlights

  • Edinburgh, where Mary was jeered at for her Catholicism and where her husband Darnley was brutally murdered. Holyrood Palace, where Mary's Secretary David Rizzio was murdered and Edinburgh Castle where James I was born.
  • Linlithgow Castle, where she was born and Stirling Castle where she was crowned as a baby.
  • Inchmahome Priory where as a small child she lived in sanctuary and in hiding, for fear of abduction by Henry VIII.
  • Jedburgh, where she scandalously lived during her affair with the Earl of Bothwell and Loch Leven Castle, where her Scottish nobles held her prisoner.
  • Chatsworth, famous seat of the Cavendish family, where Mary was held for many years in the custody of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury and Hardwick Hall.
  • Fortheringay Castle, where Mary was tried and executed and her English prisons of Carlisle, Bolton and Tutbury Castles.
  • Mary's famous Death Mask and the notorious silver casket of letters used in evidence against her at her trial.
Inchmahome Priory

Photo credits:

Slideshow: Stirling Castle © Historic Environment Scotland; Palace of Holyroodhouse © John Freeman Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019; inside Edinburgh Castle © Historic Environment Scotland.

Photo to the right of the tour: Inchmahome Priory © Historic Environment Scotland.

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