Hidden Britain AtlasOpen the map
All places › Plots
Plot

The Ruthven Raid

Huntingtower Castle, Perth

Nobles kidnapped the teenage King James VI.

In August 1582, the Earl of Gowrie and other Protestant lords invited the 16-year-old King James VI to Ruthven Castle, now Huntingtower, and then refused to let him leave. They held him for ten months.

Read the full story, see it on the map, get directions and find what else is nearby in the free Hidden Britain Atlas map.

Open The Ruthven Raid on the mapReport a sighting here
When
August 1582
Where
56.4050, -3.4890
Group
Plots

Visiting

Historic Environment Scotland, open in season.

Cover of Guy Fawkes: Traitor or Faithful? by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

Guy Fawkes: Traitor or Faithful?

This book asks one question and keeps asking it: was Guy Fawkes faithful, or a traitor? Most people think they already know. The answer has been handed down for four hundred years, with a bonfire and a rhyme, and it is rarely examined. From the boy from Stonegate in York to the cellar, the Tower and Westminster Hall, every chapter ends with a ledger of what it adds in his favour and what it adds against him. By the last page you may find that the answer you arrived with is not the one you leave with.

Buy on AmazonAll books by Cale Mills

Nearby mysteries