J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Across the top half of the page is a sketch of a loch with islands and hills in the distance which Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have identified as Loch Leven near Kinross,1 making this a view from the south with the ruined castle on a small island in the loch. There are comparable sketches of the castle from a distance on folio 24 (D26711; CCLXXII 24a). An inscription at the top right of the page could read ‘Loch [...]’, or perhaps ‘Queen Mary’, a reference to the incarceration of Mary Queen of Scots at Lochleven Castle in 1567–8. For references to further sketches of Loch Leven see folio 25 verso (D26708; CCLXXII 23).

The sketch at the bottom of the page is of Burleigh Castle, which lies about a mile and a half to the north-east of Kinross, at the eastern outskirts of the village of Milnathort. This view is from the north-east, and looks towards the tower house with the west range and the south-east tower to the right. Behind the castle is the gabled end of one of the farmstead buildings of Burleigh Steadings that lie across the road to the south of the castle, now converted to housing. There is a similar view of the castle on folio 5 (D26685; CCLXXII 10a). For references to further sketches of Burleigh Castle see folio 8 (D26695; CCLXXII 16).