What is Floors Castle and where is it?
Floors Castle stands on a rise above the River Tweed near the market town of Kelso in the Scottish Borders, its long battlemented silhouette visible for miles across the flat Tweed Valley. It is the largest inhabited castle in Scotland — a title it holds through the sheer scale of its 18th and 19th century building campaigns, which transformed a relatively modest house into a sprawling aristocratic palace of over 365 rooms.
It is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe, and has been associated with the Innes-Ker family and the Cessford branch of the wider Kerr story since the castle was built in 1721. For anyone exploring Border heritage, it sits at the heart of one of Scotland's most historically charged landscapes.
Is Floors Castle really the largest inhabited castle in Scotland?
By room count, yes — Floors Castle's 365 rooms make it the largest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland. The claim is sometimes contested, as definitions of 'castle' and 'inhabited' can vary, but no serious rival comes close to Floors in terms of sheer residential scale. It is a country house as much as a castle in the traditional sense, though its battlements and towers give it a firmly martial character from the outside.
Who owns Floors Castle?
Floors Castle is owned by the Duke of Roxburghe, whose Innes-Ker line descends from the Cessford branch of the Kerr family. The current duke continues to live in part of the castle while the principal rooms are open to the public from May to October, offering visitors access to a remarkable collection of French furniture, tapestries, Chinese porcelain, and portraits accumulated over three centuries.
Clan Kerr and the Ferniehirst tradition
Clan Kerr is one of the major families of the Scottish Borders, with Ferniehirst near Jedburgh and Cessford near Morebattle anchoring two important branches. A popular tradition links the Kerrs with left-handed swordsmen and the stairways at Ferniehirst, a story that has become part of Border folklore.
The documented history of Ferniehirst is compelling in its own right: Historic Environment Scotland describes it as the ancient seat of the Kerrs, Marquesses of Lothian. The clan motto, Sero Sed Serio — Late But In Earnest — remains one of the best-known phrases associated with the name.
The history of Floors Castle from its origins to today
The original house at Floors was built in 1721 for the 1st Duke of Roxburghe by the architect William Adam, Scotland's foremost architect of the early 18th century and father of the celebrated Robert Adam. It was a relatively plain building in the Georgian style, not unlike several other great houses of the period.
The castle's transformation into its current dramatic form came between 1837 and 1847, when the 6th Duke of Roxburghe commissioned William Playfair — the Edinburgh architect responsible for much of the New Town — to remodel and expand the building into a full Scottish baronial palace. Playfair added the turrets, battlements, and pepper-pot towers that give Floors its distinctive skyline.
The Border reivers: Kerr, Scott, Turnbull, and the families of the Tweed Valley
Before Floors Castle existed, the Borders around Cessford and Ferniehirst were shaped by raiding, feud, royal service and March administration. The Kerrs were major participants in that frontier world, alongside many other families whose loyalties and rivalries shifted across generations.
Clan Scott dominated the country further up the Tweed, their power centred on Branxholme Castle near Hawick. The great Sir Walter Scott — novelist and poet — was a descendant of these same Border Scotts. Clan Turnbull, whose name derives according to tradition from a legendary act of cattle-wrestling involving Robert the Bruce, held lands across Roxburghshire as one of the defining reiver families of the region.
Clan Rutherford, Pringle, and the lesser-known reiver surnames
The great reiver names overshadow a host of families who were equally embedded in the Border way of life. Clan Rutherford held lands along the Teviot and were regular participants in the cycle of raid and counter-raid that defined Border existence for three hundred years. The Rutherfords produced notable figures in Scottish church and legal history, evidence that the same family could contain both outlaws and scholars within a generation or two.
Clan Pringle held lands in Roxburghshire from the 13th century, their name associated with Smailholm Tower — the peel tower near Kelso where the young Walter Scott spent formative summers. Clan Home controlled significant swaths of Berwickshire and the eastern Borders, their castle at Home a centre of Border power for centuries.
Floors Castle in film and popular culture
Floors Castle appeared on screen in the 1985 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, where its baronial grandeur provided a convincing backdrop for an aristocratic Scottish country seat. Its combination of dramatic silhouette and accessible Borders location makes it a natural choice for productions requiring a genuinely lived-in Scottish castle.
What to see at Floors Castle today
The state rooms open to the public contain a remarkable collection built up over three centuries of Roxburghe family acquisition. The tapestries, many of them 17th century Brussels weave, are among the finest in private Scottish hands. The Chinese porcelain collection is exceptional. The walled garden — which grows vegetables, cut flowers, and soft fruit for the estate — is one of the great working kitchen gardens of the Scottish Borders.
The grounds include a holly tree which, according to tradition, marks the spot where James II of Scotland was killed in 1460 when a cannon exploded beside him during the siege of Roxburgh Castle — making Floors Castle grounds the location of one of the more unusual royal deaths in Scottish history.
Planning a visit to Floors Castle and Kelso
Floors Castle is open from May to October and is located just outside Kelso, which is itself one of the most attractive market towns in the Borders. Allow two to three hours for the castle and grounds. For those building a broader Borders itinerary, the ruined Kelso Abbey stands just minutes away, and Edinburgh Castle is roughly an hour's drive to the north — a counterpoint that shows how different two Scottish castles built centuries apart can feel.
Searching your Scottish Borders clan heritage
The Borders produced some of Scotland's most enduring surnames — names that spread from Liddesdale to Nova Scotia, from the Tweed Valley to the Appalachian mountains of America. Whether your name is Kerr, Scott, Rutherford, Pringle, Turnbull, or one of the dozens of reiver surnames that shaped this landscape, your heritage is Scottish to its core.
Celtic Ancestry Gifts carries thousands of Scottish and Irish names across our full range of heritage products. Search your surname on our homepage and find the gifts made for your family.