Fabled Castle Douglas lands lone star status; Texan couple aim to

The market town of Castle Douglas will finally get its own castle in Texas.

The Dumfries and Galloway tourist spot often deals with confused visitors looking for a castle in the town centre, when in fact Threave Castle, the ruined family seat of the Black Douglas's is a mile away.

But now an enterprising couple in Texas have built their own Castle Douglas inspired by their travels in Kirkcudbrightshire and the southwest.

The "new" Castle Douglas lies just east of Dallas and owners Charlotte and John Dumford are using it to cash in on the castle wedding craze sweeping America.

Their Castle Douglas is a 71-acre, (pounds) 2 million estate, named after the Scottish Castle Douglas but with a few imaginative splashes thrown in.

It boasts two 60ft high turrets, has a 48ft high Grand Hall, supported by four 38,000lb stone beams. Couples using the venue at (pounds) 1500 to (pounds) 3800 a day get to enjoy an on-site chapel, complete with air-conditioning, a home theatre and wine cellar, a ballroom, pub and gardens modelled on Hampton Court with a separate rose garden. The Grand Hall features a 16ft inscribed fireplace.

The Dumfords are confident that Americans who long for Scottish weddings but who cannot be bothered with the hassle of transatlantic flights - the gulp inducing costs and the jet lag - will book up. Included in the price are pipers and horse-drawn carriages - grooms may also dress up in very un-Scottish suits of armour for an added fee.

John Dumford told the Sunday Herald: "The recent interest in Scottish castle weddings has certainly impacted on our decision. Yesterday they installed the cast stone fireplace, which features four Scottish lions."

His wife Charlotte added: "As Americans, we have so little in our lives these days. We're all so busy and everything is about money. Yet people still love chivalry and nobility and the idea that the world is good."

Although both trace their lineage to Scotland - John to Castle Douglas and Charlotte to nearby Crawford - their castle is dedicated to John's mother who died recently.

He said: "It's a tribute to her. This was our dream and her death made us realise that life is too short to waste time."

Dr David Deveraux, curator of museums in the Stewartry area, explained why the Kirkcudbrightshire town is named after a non- existent castle."It's a rags-to-riches story in its own right actually. Sir William Douglas, a Galloway pedlar, made his fortune in America trading tobacco and the like - he used his fortune at home buying an estate and trying to buy himself some nobility. He is even mocked by Robert Burns in his Election Ballad of 1795.

"He created a new town around the village which was then called Carlingwark and named it Castle Douglas after himself - he was trying to make an association with Threave Castle which was the seat of the Douglas's until 1455."

Deveraux added that Threave Castle has a romance of its own that the Dumfords would find hard to capture.

"Although it is a ruin it has been well preserved by Historic Scotland. As it is on an island you have to ring for a boatman who will take you across. It's very romantic."

Norma Hart, chief executive of Dumfries and Galloway tourist board said: "It's a compliment to Castle Douglas that this couple like the area so much they want to remind themselves of it."

The Dumfords' enterprise is capitalising on the huge interest from across the Atlantic in all things Scottish.

More than 300 Highland Games take place every year in the US, and throughout the summer 1.5 million people flocked to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival which focused on all things Scottish. Twelve million Americans claim to have Scottish connections in their ancestry.

Marrying in kilts or swathed in tartan has also been popularised following star weddings here, with both singer Madonna and designer Stella McCartney putting Scotland on the international celebrity circuit. The Dumford's Castle Douglas is also proving to be somewhat of a local tourist attraction.

From the nearby interstate, 30 drivers who spot the towers have been known to take a drive into town just to glimpse the castle.

If they leave its gates open for more than half an hour, "people will appear all over the property," said Charlotte. Unlike the basement prison at Threave Castle, the Dumfords were happy to stress to the Sunday Herald that their castle has no dungeon.

www.castledouglas.net (the real Castle Douglas) www.castledouglastexas. com (the new Castle Douglas)

Copyright 2003 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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