Drumlanrig Castle

Drumlanrig Castle, ancient Douglas stronghold and Dumfriesshire home of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, was completed in 1691. It is surrounded by the 120,000 acre Queensberry Estate, Country Park and Victorian Gardens. Drumlanrig was built by William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry and is one of the most important Renaissance buildings in Scotland. Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece The Madonna and the Yarnwinder, worth around £30 million, was stolen from Drumlanrig in 2003. James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry was very influential in bringing about the Treaty of Union in 1707. The same evening the 2nd Duke was signing the Act of Union, his son, the Earl of Drumlanrig, is said to have roasted a servant boy on a spit in an oven in the kitchens of his house in Edinburgh.