Blair Castle Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland . It is the ancestral home of the Clan Murray , and was historically the seat of their chief , the Duke of Atholl , though the current ( 12th ) Duke , Bruce Murray , lives in South Africa . The castle stands in Glen Garry , and commands a strategic position on the main route ( now the A9 road ) through the central Scottish Highlands . The castle is a category A listed building , and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland , the national listing of significant gardens . History . Blair Castle is said to have been started in 1269 by John I Comyn , Lord of Badenoch ( died c . 1275 ) , a northern neighbour of David I Strathbogie , Earl of Atholl ( died 1270 ) , who started building on the Earl ' s land while he was away on crusade . Upon his return , the Earl complained about the interloper to King Alexander III , won back his land and incorporated the tower that had been built into his own castle . David II Strathbogie , Earl of Atholl ( died 1326 ) , forfeited the titles and estates after rebelling against Robert the Bruce in 1322 . The earldom was granted to a number of individuals until 1457 when James II granted it to his half - brother John Stewart ( 1440 – 1512 ) . John Murray , son of the second Earl of Tullibardine , was created Earl of Atholl in 1629 , and the title has since remained in the Murray family . During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of the 17th century , the Murrays supported the Royalist cause , which led to Blair Castle being taken by Oliver Cromwell ' s army following his invasion of 1650 . The restored Charles II created the title Marquess of Atholl for John Murray , 2nd Earl of Atholl ( 1631 – 1703 ) . The title Duke of Atholl was granted to the 2nd Marquess in 1703 . When Viscount Dundee launched the first Jacobite Uprising in April 1689 , Atholl decided to remain loyal to the Government ( although two of his sons joined the Jacobites ) . Atholl ’ s factor , Patrick Stewart of Ballechin , held Blair Castle for King James , and Dundee visited in May . In July Ballechin refused entry to Atholl ’ s whiggish son and heir , Lord John Murray . Murray laid siege to the castle , and General Mackay was approaching to join him and to seize it for the Williamites . Viscount Dundee relived the castle , and the crucial Battle of Killiecrankie was fought because Dundee did not want to retreat and surrender the castle to Mackay . Dundee and his officers and clan chiefs held a Council of War at the castle on the eve of the battle , on 26 July . The next day , the Jacobites won the battle but Dundee was killed . After the battle , Blair Castle remained in Jacobite hands for some time . It continued to play an important role : for example , the Jacobite Highland chiefs swore a bond there together in August , to continue the rising . In the Forty - Five , Blair Castle was occupied twice by Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his Jacobite army : in early September 1745 , for several days , and then in early February 1746 , again for several days . However , the Jacobites then unwisely abandoned it and Government forces , including Lowland Clan Agnew then occupied it . They held Blair Castle against the Jacobites , who laid siege to the castle during the last stages of the rising , in March 1746 . They were besieged to near starvation until the Jacobite forces withdrew to fight the British Government forces at the Battle of Culloden . In 1844 Queen Victoria and her consort , Prince Albert visited and stayed at Blair Castle . It was after this she gave permission to establish the Atholl Highlanders . Before his death in 1996 , George Murray , 10th Duke of Atholl , placed Blair Castle and most of his estates in a charitable trust , shielding them from inheritance taxes and leaving them under Scottish control , as his heir John Murray , the 11th Duke had indicated he had no desire to leave his native South Africa . On the night of 10 March 2011 a fire broke out at the clock tower of castle ( not part of the medieval fabric ) , causing the tower ' s roof and second floor to collapse into the first floor . The clock tower was restored in 2012 , with restoration work on the clock mechanisms performed by Smith of Derby Group . The castle and gardens . The oldest part of the castle is the six - storey Cummings or Comyn ' s Tower , which may retain some 13th - century fabric , though it was largely built in the 15th century . The extensions which now form the central part of the castle were first added in the 16th century . The apartments to the south were added in the mid - 18th century to designs by architects John Douglas and James Winter . The south - east range , incorporating the clock tower , was rebuilt by Archibald Elliot after a fire in 1814 . Finally , the castle arrived at its present form in the 1870s , when David Bryce remodelled the whole building in a Scots Baronial style , and added the ballroom . The castle has been open to the public since 1936 . Its many rooms feature important collections of weapons , hunting trophies , souvenirs of the Murray clan , ethnographica , paintings , furniture , and needlework collected by the Murray family over many generations . The castle also provides the garrison for the Atholl Highlanders , the private army of the Duke of Atholl , noted as the only legal private army in Europe . The Castle and the Atholl Estates were used in the 2008 reality television series " Conquer the Castle " . In 2009 , a Grand Fir ( " Abies grandis " ) in Diana ' s Grove in the grounds of the castle , was measured at , and declared the second - tallest tree in Britain .