| Administrative History | The daughter of a journalist, Sylvia Barkley was born in Surrey 1928. She graduated BSc from the University of London in 1949, and moved to Aberdeen. At the university there she was assistant lecturer in botany from 1953 to 1955, and graduated PhD in 1955. In the same year she married Peter Landsberg, and by 1970 was living in Southampton. She continued to pursue her interests in botany and gardening, and in particular in medieval gardens. She recreated several examples of these in sites throughout Britain and her book 'The Medieval Garden' was published in 1996.
Dunnottar Castle, Kincardineshire, built on a promontory with a long history of habitation, was the property of the Keith family from the 14th century to the 1715 Jacobite rebellion, when it was forfeited with the rest of the estates of the attainted 10th Earl Marischal. They built the keep and, during the 16th and 17th centuries, made the castle a place of gentler aspect, though still making the most of the natural defences. It was used to hide the Scottish Regalia during the Cromwellian wars, but when the castle was surrendered to Cromwell in 1652 the Regalia were smuggled away. The castle had been besieged for eight months and was in a less than perfect state: the Keiths used it thereafter as a prison, first for Covenanters, then for Aberdeen Jacobites in 1689. The castle is now a ruin. |