page_title: Darnaway Castle
section_title: Medieval great hall
hierarchical_section_title: Darnaway Castle / Medieval great hall
caption_attribution_description: Plate X/b - John Claude Nattes made drawings of suitable scenes on the spot; etchings are by James Fittler. - John Claude Nattes made drawings of suitable scenes on the spot; etchings are by James Fittler.
context_page_description: Darnaway Castle, also known as Tarnaway Castle, is located in Darnaway Forest, 3 miles southwest of Forres in Moray, Scotland. This was Comyn land, given to Thomas Randolph along with the Earldom of Moray by King Robert I. The castle has remained the seat of the Earls of Moray ever since. Rebuilt in 1810, it retains the old banqueting hall, capable of accommodating 1,000 men.
context_section_description: The banqueting hall is the only remaining portion of the castle that was erected in 1450 by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, and retains its 15th-century hammerbeam roof, making it one of only two medieval halls in Scotland with its original roof, "a specimen almost unique in Scotland."  The hall was already notable in 1562 when an English observer described it as, "verie fayer and large builded." The hall was re-roofed with "spune thak", wooden shingles or shakes hewn by a carpenter, at the command of James IV, and on 20 November 1501 the maidens of Forres came to Darnaway to sing for him. James kept his mistress Janet Kennedy at Darnaway with her companion Katrine Douglas. In 1502 he sent a lutenist, Adam Dickson, to Darnaway to entertain them.
caption: The castle in 1804, before its reconstruction
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5962", "Image ImageLength": "3804", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "74425902, 2/9/04, 8:08 am,  8C, 4282x10660 (1536+0), 100%, bent 6 stops,  1/60 s, R105.3, G80.6, B96.8", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "400", "Image YResolution": "400", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:06:11 11:29:37", "Image ExifOffset": "368", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "506", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7502", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2500", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1692"}