It is located approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of Dundee in the Carse of Gowrie, Perth and Kinross, close to the shore of the Firth of Tay, and can be seen from the main road linking Dundee and Perth.

The castle sits on top of a rocky outcrop surrounded by what is now farmland.

Lord Gray of Fowlis built Castle Huntly around 1452, under licence from James II of Scotland.

Two women — Apollonia Kickius and a Mrs Morris — worked as painters at Castle Lyon in the late 17th century.

[1] In the 1770s, the widow of the 7th Earl of Strathmore sold the castle to George Paterson, of the East India Company.