History
In 1416, James Dundas obtained a license to build a keep from the first Duke of Albany, with an extension granted in 1436. It was primarily a defensive refuge. Oliver Cromwell is known to have stayed at Dundas Castle around the time of the Battle of Dunbar in 1650.
The modern Dundas Castle was built in 1818 by the renowned architect William Burn. Burn also designed many churches and this influence is visible throughout the building. Burn's designs for the main state rooms allow for huge windows that look out on to lawns and parkland outside. The Dundas family sold the property in 1875.
In 1899 it was bought along with five farms and 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) of agricultural land by Stewart Clark, in whose family the property remains. Clark was the owner of a Victorian textile company at Anchor Mills and became Deputy Lord Lieutenant in the County of Renfrewshire, was elected MP for Paisley and was respected for being a great philanthropist.
During the Second World War, Dundas Castle served as the headquarters for protecting the Forth Bridge.
The current owner since 1995 has been Sir Jack Stewart-Clark, the great-grandson of Stewart Clark. Stewart-Clark was an MEP between 1979 and 1999.
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—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)