Thirlestane Castle preparing to open apartments but remain closed to visitors for rest of year

Thirlestane Castle in Lauder will remain closed to visitors for the rest of the year due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Thirlestane Castle, near Lauder.Thirlestane Castle, near Lauder.
Thirlestane Castle, near Lauder.

The 16th century castle, is the historic seat of the Earls and Duke of Lauderdale, and has been home to the Maitland family since 1590, but run by a charitable trust since 1983.

It is usually open to visitors from May to October and year-round for exclusive-use private functions.

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Edward Maitland-Carew, Thirlestane Castle trustee, said: “With so much uncertainty and having weighed up all our options, it is with great sadness that we have had to make the very difficult decision to not open the castle to the day visitor this year.

“These are challenging times for museums like Thirlestane Castle who rely so heavily on visitor income to preserve the castle and its collections.”

In March an opening ceremony of the castle’s recently-completed School Room toy museum, was cancelled and replaced with a behind-closed-doors ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The castle’s team of trustees hoped to be able to showcase the new attraction to visitors later this year, but that’s now been shelved.

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The castle is, however, preparing to reopen the doors to its five self-catering apartments once allowed.

Mr Maitland-Carew added: “We are still intending to open the self-catering accommodation later in the year as part of Phase 3 and are looking forward to welcoming guests back here to stay in these wonderful apartments.”

Staff are being trained in new measures including self-check in services and enhanced hygiene and cleaning procedures.

Plans are being made for both the castle and grounds to reopen to day visitors in May 2021.

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