Having the Run of Traquair House, A Mansion Dating to 1107 and Home of the Stuart Royal Family

Drifting off to sleep on my first night in Traquair House, “Scotland’s oldest inhabited house,” which dates to 1107, I thought I heard a voice whispering a question. “Protestant or Catholic?”

I tried to dodge the question. “Doesn’t matter nowadays,” I replied.

“It matters to me,” I thought I heard a voice whispering back.

Indeed, one could understand why it might still matter to spirits inhabiting Traquair House, a long-standing refuge for persecuted Catholics, nearly 100 acres in the Borders area between Scotland and England. “This place is a time capsule,” Lucia wrote family.

Traquair was originally a hunting lodge for the kings and queens of Scotland in the 1100s. Part of the current 50-room structure date back to the 1400s. Surrounded by forest, it became a key defense post against British invasion. The Stuart family acquired the estate in 1491, and it has remained in the family ever since.