So this week, in an attempt to avoid boring you all, I am going to tell you something about Melville Castle that you will never find recorded on the blog of any other wedding photographer in Edinburgh. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find this little detail anywhere at all. I came across this several years ago long before I had photographed any weddings at Melville Castle. I had been commissioned by a publishing house to do a series of magazine articles on historical castles in and around Edinburgh. This included not just the photography but also doing the writing as well. Although it’s the photography that I love above all else I was pretty cool about doing the writing too
as it doubles up the fee ;) Anyway, I had started off with Tantallon Castle across on the coast and then worked back towards Edinburgh photographing and researching Craigmillar Castle, Crichton Castle, Craigcrook Castle, and Edinburgh Castle. The next two on my list were Lennoxlove House and Melville Castle.When I was making the arrangements for the shoot at Lennoxlove House I was very surprised to get a phone call from the Duke of Hamilton himself. If you are not aware of it the Duke of Hamilton is Scotland’s highest ranked peer, and if Scotland were ever to become an independent sovereign it would be the Duke of Hamilton that becomes King. The Duke owns the Lennoxlove Estate and is a very keen photographer and said he would welcome the opportunity to
give me a personal tour of Lennoxlove allowing him the opportunity to pick up some photography tips from me. Well, as you can imagine I felt very honoured, albeit a little nervous, too. Anyway, to cut a long story short, and because I realise I have strayed completely away from the subject of my wedding at Melville Castle, lol, I went through to Lennoxlove and spent a very nice afternoon with the Duke of Hamilton. The Duke is of course closely related to, or maybe to be more accurate, a family descendant of Mary Queen of Scots, and hence his home literally teems with items and details about Scotland’s most famous monarch. I have always loved history and so lapped up as much as I could possibly take in, and the Duke, after giving me a personal tour and answering all my questions, very kindly gave me free run of the house as well which allowed me to examine all of Queen Mary’s belongings that have been passed down through the family and many documents and personal items. I think I learnt more about Mary Queen of Scots in that one day than in all the subsequent days of research and reading. 
And (at last we come to the point of this extemporaneous ramble lol) amongst my findings was a little snippet of intriguing information relating to Melville Castle. I only noticed it because Melville Castle was the next historical place on my list.Okay, I will now get back onto the wedding theme and slip in my Mary Queen of Scots tid bit. There are many, many reasons why I like Melville Castle weddings. Amongst them is
the fact that it is the perfect distance from Kinnaird Park’s Costa Coffee. I can therefore pick up my coffee, pop it in my cars specially designed Costa Coffee cup holder, and by the time I arrive at Melville Castle it has cooled to the perfect temperature. (I bet you thought last weeks comment about me being the only Edinburgh wedding photographer who gets free coffee from Costa by giving them a name drop in my blog was a joke, eh? lol) As I always get to my weddings early I usually have time to enjoy my coffee before we start work. Now as I am a person who likes to visit Melville Castle regularly I am among good company because this was also a favourite occupation of Mary Queen of Scots!
In Mary’s day Melville Castle wasn’t quite as grand as it is today because back then there was no Costa Coffee near it and it only had hunting lodge status. However, Queen Mary used to ride through the Melville Castle grounds often, and she had an ill frequented little spot not too far from the river bank where she used to enjoy sitting quietly and savouring her surroundings. You can find it approximately half way between the gatehouse and the castle itself. If you know where to look you can push back the over grown foliage and still see the small indentation in the ground from her little royal bottom. It
is here that I like to pause too and enjoy my coffee. As not many people know of its existence it is always nice and peaceful and very easy to imagine how it must have been very similar on the occasions Queen Mary sat here. It was here that Mary contemplated where exactly she should plant her tree. She picked a spot mid way between where she sat and the Castle, and her tree is still here down to this day. A couple of centuries after Mary planted her tree Melville Castle passed to Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount of Melville who went on to become Duke of Lauderdale. It was around this time that the castle was demolished and subsequently rebuilt at the end of the 18th century. The new castle was designed by James Playfair and it is this building that you see today.
The photos in todays blog are from Pauline and David’s wedding who married here a couple of weeks ago and are not long back from honeymoon. The beautiful floral decorations and bridal bouquets were done by Flowers by Rhona. I don’t have any new information on possible new ownership of the castle at the minute but I still have several weddings coming up between now and the end of autumn so will keep you informed. Maybe I should take it over myself, eh???
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