It was given into state care in the 1930s, and is now a visitor attraction run by Historic Environment Scotland (open all year; entrance charge).

The first castle at Edzell was a timber motte and bailey structure, built to guard the mouth of Glenesk, a strategic pass leading north into the Highlands.

Around 1520, David Lindsay decided to abandon the original castle, and built a tower house and barmkin, or courtyard, in a more sheltered location nearby.

He proceeded to extend the simple tower house, in around 1550, by the addition of a large west range, incorporating a new entrance gate and hall.

Lord Crawford also built Invermark Castle, 12 miles (19 km) north of Edzell, possibly as a hunting lodge, at around the same time.

The Queen was on a Royal progress, with the aim of subduing the rebellious George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, and spent two nights at Edzell.

[11] The next day the news arrived at Edzell that Henry III of France had been assassinated at Saint-Cloud by a Dominican friar, Jacques Clément.

[12] Sir David further extended the castle in the late 16th century, with the addition of a large north range with round corner towers.

He laid out the garden in 1604, with symbols of England, Scotland and Ireland, to celebrate the Union of the Crowns of the previous year, when James VI acceded to the English throne on the death of his cousin, Elizabeth I.

Sir David died in 1610, heavily in debt as a result of fines handed down for the unruly conduct of his son, and with both the garden and the north range incomplete.

Faced with mounting family debts, David sold the castle to the 4th Earl of Panmure, a fellow Jacobite, for £192,502 Scots, equivalent to £16,042 sterling.

[14] The castle saw its last military event in 1746, when a unit of government troops, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, occupied the building, causing further damage.

Marks in the wall show the position of a minstrels' gallery and a timber screen, which concealed a serving area accessed via a narrow stair from the cellar.

[28] In addition to extending the castle, Sir David Lindsay also created Edzell's most unusual feature, the walled garden, or "Pleasaunce".

[2] The garden would have provided a retreat from the castle, and was intended to delight, entertain, and instruct Sir David's distinguished guests.

Those on the east wall have semi-circular pediments carved with scrolls, and with the national symbols of thistle, fleur-de-lis, shamrock and rose, recalling the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland, under James VI in 1603.

W. Douglas Simpson describes the arts panels as the weakest set of carvings, again suggesting money was short for the west wall.

He declared the arts panels to be the finest work, and compares the style of the deities to contemporary carvings found in Aberdeenshire, suggesting that the mason responsible may have come from there.

[32] Specifically, the images of the deities are derived from engravings of 1528–29 by the German artist Georg Pencz (or Iorg Bentz, c. 1500–1550), a pupil of Albrecht Dürer; the initials I.

Indeed, the image of Prudence is identical to that used by the King's Master of Works William Schaw, in the spectacular display to welcome Queen Anne to Scotland, following her marriage to James VI in 1589.

It comprises a groin-vaulted lower room, with an upper chamber, containing the only surviving example of the castle's carved-oak wall panelling.

Charles McKean attributes the design and construction of the garden buildings to Thomas Leiper, an Aberdeenshire stonemason, based on the elaborately decorated gun holes in the summer house.

The art of memory had become a feature throughout Scottish culture, from the court of Queen Anne, Danish consort of James VI, to the lodges of operative stonemasons.

[37] The potential influence of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's symbolic garden at Uraniborg, which was visited by James IV of Scotland in 1590, has also been noted.

In correspondence with his brother, Lord Menmuir, he discusses the relationship of the planets to the metals, which he had employed Hans Ziegler to search for on his land.

[39] McLean describes the garden as a place of instruction, and remarks that the whole structure is reminiscent of "Eliphas Levi's description of the ancient Tarot of the Egyptians carved into the walls of their initiation temples, to which the candidate was taken to contemplate the sequence of the symbols".