Castle Menzies

Castle Menzies is a large Z-plan tower house of the 16th century on low lying haugh land in Strathtay. The castle is now owned and managed by the Clan Menzies Charitable Trust, and is open to the public for a fee.

The chiefs of the Menzies clan had a castle at Comrie (destroyed by a fire in 1487) and then another known as the “Place of Weem” which was supposedly destroyed by the Stewarts of Garth in 1502. It is likely that the present building was started soon afterwards to replace their old seat, but the earliest datestone of 1571 is most commonly used as a dating point. Internally the thickness of the walls and the presence of mural staircases rather than turret stairs is an indication that the castle contains remnants of the building of 1502.

The castle was occupied as a garrison point in the 1650s by English soldiers, and again by Jacobites in 1745 and 1746 – which resulted in considerable damage being inflicted on the castle. In the early 18th and mid 19th century, large extensions (now removed) were added to the building before the end of the chiefly line in 1910, at which point the estate was broken up and the castle sold. It proved too expensive to maintain, and fell into disrepair before it was purchased by the Clan Society and restored.

Official Castle Menzies website

HES Canmore database entry – Weem Castle
HES Canmore database entry – Castle Menzies