About Culcreuch Castle Hotel, near Stirling, Scotland. 

The old Tower is rectangular in plan, 41ft. 2ins. by 28ft. 6ins.,with walls averaging 5ft. 6ins. thick. It contains 3 storeys and an attic, and its height to the top is 42ft. 6ins. It is built of stone with dressed quoins and the walls are topped by a parapet and a chequered corbel course, under a slate roof. The front wing was built in the first half of the eighteenth century and rises to the same height of the Tower with 4 storeys. Built of stone under a slate roof, it exactly matches the original tower.

Internally Culcreuch has many fine features including a remarkable Bottle Dungeon, so called as the bottle shape meant a prisoner could not lie down, an Aumbry (normally only seen in ancient monasteries) and, in the Chinese Bird Room, the hand painted oriental wall paper dates from 1723. There are also a number of magnificent fire places as well as superb old panelling in the Dining Room. 

Below is a view upwards from the curved floor of the Bottle Dungeon. Surely a daunting site for any captive.

   

The basement (on ground level) contains two barrel vaulted cellars, originally lit by window-slits, now tastefully converted to form the cosy Dungeon Diner.



At the entrance to the Dungeon Diner is what remains of the old wheel staircase, the rest being removed when the Tower was extended.

The first floor is a single large room - the original Laird's Hall. There may have been cooking arrangements at the back end.

The front wing containing the Main Entrance, along with the impressive "dog legged" staircase shown below, was added in the 18th Century.

 

The two wings - one to the rear of the Tower and the other which includes a pepper-pot tower - were later additions.


The second floor consists of two bedrooms as does the attic. See Castle Accommodation for more details and views of the Castle Rooms.