Castles – North-East

* in the column denotes a moated or partially moated site; ‘Build Date’ refers to the oldest surviving significant elements In column 1; AB ≡ , BF ≡ Banffshire, KC ≡ Kincardine, MY ≡ Moray

Occupation AB Castle Location Configuration Build Date Current Remains Status

1 NJ 732 236 Tower + courtyard 1520 Empty, after 1746 Tower, 1 full height wall, scattered ruins 2 Barra NJ 792 258 Courtyard 15th C Occupied Entire, but restored 3 Castle Fraser NJ 723 126 Tower + courtyard 1454 Occupied NTS building entire 4 NJ 255 086 Tower + courtyard Early-16th C Empty, 19th C Roofless, but otherwise entire, very white 5 Corse NJ 548 074 Tower 1581 Empty, 19th C High, mostly complete ruin 6 Coull NJ 513 023 Enclosure 13th C Empty, early-14th C Scattered low ruins 7 Delgatie NJ 755 506 L-plan tower 1570 Occupied Entire, though modified 8 Drum NJ 796 005 Tower 1280s Occupied NTS, building entire, later mansion 9 Dundarg NJ 895 649 Double enclosure Early-13th C Empty, early 14th C Fragments of , other footings 10 Dunnideer NJ 613 282 Tower? 13th C 18th C? Wall fragments defining size 11 Eden NJ 698 588 Tower c1577 Empty, 18th C High ruined shell 12 Esslemont NJ 932 298 Enclosure 14th C Empty, 1799 Ruin, of 14th C mural tower in 17th C tower 13 Fedderate NJ 897 498 Tower Mid-15th C Empty, c1700 2 high wall fragments 14 Fetternear NJ 723 171 Tower/mansion 15th C/16th C Empty, 20th C Roofless shell of mansion 15 NJ 764 149 Fortified mansion 13th C Occupied NTS, entire, expanded over centuries 16 NJ 827 392 L-plan tower 16th C Empty,18th C High roofless ruin 17 Glenbuchat NJ 397 149 Tower 1590 Empty, 1840 Roofless high ruin 18 Hallforest NJ 777 154 Tower + barmkin c1326 Empty, 17th C High partial shell 19 NJ 532 407 Enclosure 12th/15th C Empty, 18th C High ruins of palace, other foundations 20 Inverallochie NK 041 629 Enclosure + tower 15th C Empty, 18th C High ruins, but buildings collapsed 21 Inverugie NK 102 487 Enclosure + tower 16th C Empty, 19th C Incoherent lowish ruins, close to road 22 NJ 471 169 Enclosure 13th C Empty, c1715 Extensive, mainly low ruins 23 Kindrochit NO 152 913 Hall house/tower 14th C Empty, 16th C Extensive low ruins 24 Kineddar NJ 722 562 Enclosure + tower 13th C Empty, 1308 Fragmentary ruins 25 Knockhall NJ 992 265 Tower + barmkin 16th C Empty, 1731 High, unroofed ruin 26 Pitsligo NJ 938 669 Tower + courtyard 15th C Empty, 18th C Truncated tower, scattered ruins 27 Ravenscraig NK 095 488 Tower + barmkin 15th C Empty, 18th C High ruins of tower 28 Slains NK 102 362 Enclosure 1597, 1836 Empty, 1920s Scattered ruins, only tower original 29 Tolquhon NJ 873 286 Enclosure 1420s Empty, mid-19th C HS, extensive high ruins BF 1 Auchendoun NJ 348 374 Enclosure + tower 1470s Empty, 18th C High ruins of some parts 2 Balvennie NJ 326 408 Enclosure 12th C Empty, 1720s Extensive ruins, especially of Atholl Building 3 Blairfindy NJ 199 286 L-plan tower 1580 Empty, 18th C High ruin 4 Boyne NJ 612 657 Enclosure 1580 Empty, 18th C High ruin of W range, other walls 5 Crombie NJ 591 522 Tower 1540s Occupied Several restorations and much modified 6 Drumin NJ 184 303 Tower 14th C 16th C High half tower ruin 7 Findlater NJ 542 673 Enclosure 1450s Empty, 1600 Scattered low ruins on promontory 8 Findochty NJ 455 673 16th C Empty, 19th C High ruin, once part of also ruined mansion 9 Fordyce NJ 556 638 Tower 1592 Occupied Entire, but restored 10 Gauldwell NJ 311 451 Enclosure 13th C Empty, 17th C? Walls, 1 long stretch

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Occupation BF Castle Location Configuration Build Date Current Remains Status

11 Inaltrie NJ 518 631 Unknown 13th C? Empty, unknown Single low wall with stubs 12 Inchdrewer NJ 656 607 Fortified house 16th C Empty, 1803 Entire because of restoration attempts 13 Kinnairdy NJ 609 498 Tower 15th C Occupied Entire, restored at least twice KC 1 Benholm NO 804 705 Tower c1475 Empty, 1760 High ruin, partially collapsed 2 Crathes NO 734 968 Tower +barmkin 16th C Occupied Entire, basic form preserved 3 Dunnottar NO 882 839 Unconventional 1390s Empty, early-18th C Scattered high ruins, iconic site MY 1 Blervie NJ 071 573 Tower Late-16th C Empty, 18th C High ruin 2 Brodie NH 980 578 Tower 1567 Occupied Modified and expanded 3 Burgie NJ 094 593 Tower Late-16th C Empty, 1802 High ruin 4 Duffus* NJ 189 672 Motte & c1350 Empty, early 18th C Extensive ruins, especially 5 Elgin NJ 212 628 Motte & bailey 12th C Empty, 1308 Fragmentary ruins 6 Lochindorb NH 974 364 Enclosure Late-13th C Empty, 1450s Complete circuit of curtain walls 7 Rothes NJ 277 490 Enclosure 13th C Empty, 1660s Length of curtain wall, earthworks 8 Spynie NJ 231 658 Enclosure 14th C Empty, late-17th C Extensive ruins including high tower 9 Tor (Dallas) NJ 125 530 Tower Mid-15th C Empty, mid-17th C Wall fragment

1. A total of 54 have been identified in North-East Scotland in the counties of Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardine and Moray. My selection philosophy has been to include the great majority of those I have already visited and such others as I think interesting, with a rarely-waived proviso that there must be masonry; I have usually excluded those which have benefitted from a modern reconstruction extensive enough to be described as a rebuild. The latter is very relevant in this region, as many castles might otherwise have been considered. Other remains I do not consider, because they are fragmentary. So, my gazetteer is best regarded as a sample, albeit quite a large one, and any tentative conclusions I draw need to be seen in that light.

2. To-date, I have visited 41 of the 54 castles on my list.

3. There are 32 tower houses, 12 of which are in enclosures or alongside barmkins; there are 2 motte and bailey types with surviving stonework,14 enclosure castles without towers, and 4 fortified houses built around halls.

4. Of those with substantial standing remains, 14 date from the 13th century or earlier, and it is clear that the Scottish government policy of demolishing castles to deny them to English forces during the Wars of Independence was not as rigorously applied here as elsewhere in the country, in spite of the actions of the Bruces in Comyn supporting country.

5. Only 10 castles remain occupied, and some of them were empty for a period before refurbishment/rebuilding, though my policy of not considering castles heavily refurbished in recent years influences this number. Castles were deserted, because they incurred serious damage in the Civil War or Jacobite Rebellions, and because their owners wanted greater comfort.

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AB1. Balquhain Castle is beside a farm steading, 4km north-west of ; it is visible from a nearby road. The castle was the seat of a branch of the Leslie family, built in the early 16th century, and comprised a courtyard in which there was a 4-storey of dimensions, 14.1 X 9.1m over walls 1.9m; the east wall still stands to full height, along with short low lengths of the north and south walls. The lay-out was conventional, with 2 vaulted storage basements below the hall, and private rooms above. The courtyard or barmkin contained ranges of buildings dating to c1600and later. There was a lobby area to the great tower and a hall block taking up the southern side of the courtyard, which had a round tower at the south-western corner, and a further range taking up the west side. The northern wall probably held the gateway, and there are the remains of at least two further ranges on this side. In the late 14th century a previous castle had been destroyed by the Forbes, with whom the Leslies had a long-running feud, and they damaged the present castle not long after it had been built, but it was repaired and received Mary, Queen of Scots as a guest in 1562. The Leslies remained in possession until the castle, was burnt by soldiers of the Duke of Cumberland, after which it was never repaired or reoccupied. The photograph is a view looking south-east.

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AB2. Barra Castle is beside the B9170, 2km south-west of Old Meldrum. In the second half of the 15th century the lands of Barra are recorded as being held by the Blackhalls and the land passed to the King family a century later. In 1590 James King of Barra and others in pursuance of a feud, attacked and killed James Seton of Meldrum, but the outcome was that the lands and castle had to be surrendered to the Setons in 1599. Early 17th century date- stones, with monograms of the Seton family, mark the first securely dated part of the castle, although it was part of an upgrading of what was probably a 15th century building. The property was sold in 1658, and eventually in the 18th century it ended up in the hands of the Ramsay family, who were responsible for restoring it in the early 20th century; it is now an events venue. As it stands today, Barra Castle comprises 3 ranges each of 3 or 4 storeys, open to the east. The north range is thought to be an 18th century addition; the south range is the highest part of the castle, possibly incorporating an early tower at its east end. The west range may incorporate a 15th century structure at ground floor level, although much of it is of early 17th century date, and as can be seen in the photograph taken from the south-west, there are round towers at its south end.

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AB4. Castle Fraser is in extensive grounds, 10km south-west of Inverurie. There may have been a 14th century tower here, but the present palatial building has its origins in the rectangular tower block, of dimensions 11.7 X 9.7m with walls 2.2m thick, still visible to the south of the present complex; it was built by Thomas Fraser after he was granted the estate in 1454. A descendant added the 9.4m square Michael Tower to the north-west, and the 8.4m diameter round tower to the south- east, in 1589. The next owner, Andrew Fraser, went for height over the next few decades, adding 2 storeys to the main block, 3 to the Michael Tower, and 4 to the round tower, to create the Z-shaped building with the southern aspect shown in the upper photograph. The lower buildings, ranged round a courtyard, which can be seen in the lower photograph taken from the north-west, were mainly added in the early 17th century. The castle was contested during the Civil War, but survived undamaged. However, the castle was transferred to another branch of the Fraser clan after its then owner gave his support to the Jacobites in 1715. Frasers continued to hold the castle until 1922, when it was sold to Lord Cowdray; he and his son carried out restorative work, and demolished some buildings which had been added in the 19th century, before giving custody to the National Trust for Scotland in 1976. I shall not give details of layouts, now or in the past, as comprehensive guidebooks are available for this iconic building.

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AB4. is highly visible to the west of the A939, the Lecht Road, 13½km south-east of Tomintoul. It was built in the first half of the 16th century, probably by the Forbes family. The tower house had dimensions, 10.7 X 7.6m, and originally had 3 storeys, with 2 vaulted cellars below a hall, and above, private rooms. There was probably a barmkin in which were ancillary buildings. The Elphinstones, were overlords and the next century was punctuated by disputes between them, the Forbes and the Gordons, and there was an outrage in 1571 when the Gordons burnt the castle, killing 24 including the wife of the Forbes clan chief. The castle was repaired, and had a significant role in both the Civil War, and the Jacobite Rebellions, sustaining serious damage on a number of occasions. After the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, Corgarff Castle was converted into a military barracks with the Tower House being gutted and converted to four storeys. The ground floor remained storerooms, the first floor became Officer accommodation and the second and third floors were converted into barracks. The old perimeter wall was demolished and replaced by a distinctive star shaped wall complete with musket loops. The military only left in 1831, when the castle was allowed to decay; it was taken into state hands in the 1960s, and the must be responsible for the garish white paint which now covers the structures. The drone photograph is from the south-west.

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AB5. Corse Castle is by the side of a minor road in Deeside, 9½km north of . The tower house was built by the Forbes family in 1581, after the destruction of a previous building by outlaws, and has a main block of dimensions 11.2 X 6.8m with a wing projecting from the east side. There was a round tower at the north-west corner but it is reduced to ground level, and the entrance in the re-entrant angle allowed access to a stair, the kitchen and a cellar. The castle remained with the Forbes clan until the early 19th century when a new house was built and it fell into ruin.

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AB6. Coull Castle is on the left bank of the Burn, 3½km north of Aboyne. The Durward family are said to have first appeared in Scotland during the mid-12th century, and achieved prominence when granted the position of door warden of all the royal palaces by King William I, hence the name. Thomas Durward was probably the builder of the earliest phase of the castle at Coull, in the early 13th century. His son, Sir Alan, married first the daughter of the Earl of Athol, and later, the illegitimate daughter of King Alexander II. After the death of the King in 1249, Sir Alan Durward was for a brief time Regent of Scotland, before being overthrown when his enemies, the Comyns, enlisted the English King, Henry III. After some years of struggle involving further interventions from King Henry, which of course endorsed English pretensions to overlord-ship, later exploited by Henry’s son, King Edward I, King Alexander III reached his majority, and Durward never attained the highest positions again before his death in 1275, though he retained some influence. He had also failed to legitimise his wife which would have placed his daughters in direct line for the throne for as long as King Alexander had no legitimate children, which he never did. The lands of Coull were granted to the Earl of Fife, who had married Isabella one of Durward’s daughters, and the castle passed to Sir John de Hastings, Lord of Abergavenny, a strong supporter of King Edward I. After the Scottish Wars of Independence, the lands were held by Douglases and Stewarts amongst many others, but it is doubtful if the castle was habitable beyond the said wars. It had been an enclosure castle with walls enclosing a pentagonal courtyard, of dimensions 45 X 35m, and there are remains of a twin towered gatehouse, a round tower of diameter 7m, and a hall range, 10m wide as indicated by the schematic. The main masonry survival is from a round keep of diameter, 9m, beside a south-west wall, shown in the photograph.

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AB7. is 3km east of . The lands have been with the Hay family since the 14th century, and there was probably an earlier castle, but the L-plan tower shown in the aerial photograph dates from 1570. Sir , the owner of the castle during the Civil War was executed in 1651 at the same time as was the Marquis of Montrose. The tower remains occupied and is presently managed by a trust. The 4-storey main block in the centre of the photograph, has dimensions 12.4 X 9.8m, while the large wing, also with 4 storeys, is to the west (and its left). The hall was in the main block, while the wing has the kitchen below the lairds private room.

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AB8. Drum Castle is in extensive grounds, 15km south-west of . The tower at the centre of the complex was built in the 1280s, probably designed by Richard Cementarius, who has also been linked to Balgownie Bridge, though the dates do not seem to fit. In 1323 King granted the property to William de Irvine, and it may be that the upper floors were only completed after that. The castle remained with that family through some vicissitudes, until it was given to the National Trust for Scotland on the death of the 24th laird in 1975. A mansion was built to the south-west of the tower in the 17th century, and the castle was contested hotly during the Civil War. The Irvines supported the Jacobite cause in 1715 and 1745, but somehow hung on to the property. The 13th century 4-storey tower, one of the oldest standing entire in Scotland, has dimensions 15.5 X 11.8m thick with walls 3.5m thick at ground level. 3 floors have vaulted roofs in a conventional layout with cellars below a vaulted hall, with 2 floors of private rooms below the highest vault. The entrance was at the level of the hall in the wall, and it and the castellated parapets can be seen in the upper photograph taken from the south-east. The lower photograph is a view from the south of the 17th century mansion, which is described in guidebooks.

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AB9. Dundarg Castle is on a north-facing clifftop promontory, 10½km west of . The castle site an Iron Age promontory fort, and it is believed that the innermost was widened in the medieval period to from a . The medieval castle was probably founded by William Comyn, Earl of Buchan, in the early 13th century. A roughly D-shaped outer courtyard, near the top-right of the aerial view from the south-west, was defended by a curtain wall along the outer (straight) edge to the south, and to its north the moat was crossed by a which led to a simple twin-towered gatehouse, which is the main masonry survival in the centre of the photograph. The inner face of the curtain wall had ranges of buildings against it, and the western end seems to have ended with a large square building. Beyond the gatehouse is a narrow, spearhead- shaped promontory which had a range of buildings along the western side with chambers at the northern end and a well. The eastern side is provided with an earth and stone ; no such structure can be seen on the western side; the drop to the sea is c23m. During the Scottish Wars of Independence the Comyns veered between neutrality and the Scottish side but when Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn in 1306, they moved into the English camp, and Dundarg was probably sacked by Edward Bruce in 1308. Two decades later, Henry Beaumont, an English baron, who had married Alice Comyn, niece and co-heiress of the last Comyn Earl of Buchan, appealed for the return of the property, but was refused. In 1332, Edward Balliol returned to Scotland, and became the figurehead in a struggle by the so-called Disinherited like Beaumont to regain their estates, and disastrous Scottish performances at the Battles of Dupplin Moor and Halidon Hill, led to the temporary installation of Edward Balliol as puppet King, after which Beaumont returned to Dundarg and refortified the castle. Balliols regime collapsed, and he fled across the border, while Dundarg fell to the resurgent Scots; Beaumont was imprisoned, and ransomed in 1335, when he returned to England. Dundarg Castle was destroyed, possibly by cannon, and it was never occupied again on any but a temporary basis.

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AB10. Dunnideer Castle is on a hilltop site of an Iron Age fort, 16½km north-west of Inverurie. The medieval castle may have been built earlier, but most likely dates from the 13th century, and may have been built by a member of the ill-fated Balliol clan. It was built within the earthworks of the , and the main structure was a rectangular building measuring 15 X 12.5m. There seems to be doubt as to whether it had 2 floors, in which case it would be classed as a hall house, or more, which would make it a very early tower house; the majority opinion seems to be for the latter. There will have been ancillary buildings, a kitchen, and perhaps a bakehouse, a brewhouse, storehouses, workshops and stables, possibly within a courtyard on the eastern side. Little is known about the later history of the castle, though there is a suggestion that it was inhabited into the 18th century, which means the rate of decay was very great.

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AB11. Eden Castle is beside a farm steading near the right bank of the River Deveron, 5½km south of Banff. It was built by a family called Meldrum in c1577, according to a dated lintel. It was modified in the 1670s by its then owner George Leslie, and sold in the early 18th century. It probably ceased to be inhabited not long afterwards, and is now an empty shell. The main block had dimensions, 12 X 8m, and a wing, 6m square was attached to the south-west corner. Externally, the 4-storey building has gun-loops and there are signs of a at the north-west corner; internally the layout was conventional with a cellar and kitchen in the basement, a hall above, and private rooms on the floors at the top. Additional buildings to the south have left roof line traces on the south wall which is shown in the photograph.

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AB12. Esslemont Castle is beside the A920, just west of the town of Ellon. The site is complex; a moated manor house of the Marischal family stood there by the 14th century, and passed by marriage to the Cheyne family. It was protected by a curtain wall with mural towers, one of which survives and was incorporated in a later building. Following a fire and the destruction of this complex in 1493, Henry Cheyne was given licence to build a tower and fortalice on the site in 1500 and it is likely that this castle was built in the next decade. In 1564, Patrick Cheyne was created baron of Esslemont by Mary, Queen of Scots, who stayed in the castle during her campaign against the Earl of Huntly. The Cheynes lost the castle shortly afterwards and it passed to the Earls of Errol, who remodelled it in c1575, though it was largely demolished by King James VI not long afterwards. Its replacement in the 17th century is the prominent ruin on the site, an L-shaped house, incorporating the surviving mural tower referred to earlier, at its south corner. This house saw action during the Civil War, but was sold to a branch of the Gordon clan in 1728. The site was abandoned for a nearby new country house in 1799. The photograph, taken from the south-west, shows the 14th century mural tower with the main block of the 17th century house behind.

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AB13. Fedderate Castle survives as 2 wall fragments in open country to the west of the A981, 19km east of Turriff. The estate of Fedderate is recorded in the 13th century, but the castle was probably built by a family named Crawford in the mid-15th century, and modified in the 1570s, by another family, the Irvines, to whom it had been sold. Otherwise, its history is briefly told, ending in 1689 when it was held for a few weeks by Jacobite forces, before being captured; whether it was dismantled immediately, or survived into the 18th century is unclear. It was an L-shaped tower house, with rounded corners, and walls over 2m thick. There was a hall block to the north, of dimensions, 1.3 X 10m, and a smaller wing to the south; the entrance was on the ground floor, facing west. Access to the upper floors was via a mural stair next to the entrance door. The basements were vaulted, as were the two rooms on the first floor, a great hall and withdrawing room, the latter above the kitchen in the wing. It is thought that there were 4 storeys in total, with the upper floors containing bedrooms. There is no evidence of a barmkin, but it is thought that the site was moated. The photograph was taken from the south-west with a fragment of the main block on the right, and part of the wing on the right.

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AB14. Fetternear Castle is near the right bank of the River Don, 25km north-west of Aberdeen. It was a long-time property of the Bishops of Aberdeen, and there are traces of L-plan tower house built in c1400, however the present ruin dates in part to c1570, and hardly qualifies as a castle. The property had been given to the Leslies, and they built a house, of dimensions 10.5 X 5.7m facing south-west, with a kitchen and cellar below a hall, with bedrooms in a 3rd storey; there was also a southern . It is to the right in the aerial photograph taken from the south. A large extension was made after the house had been returned to the Roman Catholic Leslies in 1690; it contained a gallery and other public and private rooms between 2 castellated towers. The family made further changes in the 19th century, but the building was burnt out in 1919, and has not been restored.

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AB15. is on the north side of the village of that name, 14km south of the Aberdeenshire town of Turiff, standing on raised ground in a bend of the River Ythan. It began life as a royal fortress in the early 13th century, first perhaps a wooden structure but there was probably a stone building there before the end of the century. It passed through the hands of families called Preston and Meldrum, each of whom contributed one of the towers at the ends of the south range, to the right on the aerial photograph taken from the south-west. In 1596, it was acquired by Alexander Seton, later Chancellor of Scotland, and 1st Earl of Dunfermline, and he is responsible for additions that contribute to its status as one of the finest buildings of its type in Scotland. In particular, the central gate-tower in the south face, best seen in the photograph below and much of the internal configuration including a ceremonial staircase is owed to him. The castle was seized by the Marquis of Montrose during the Civil War, and eventually forfeited by the Seton earls in 1694, passing to a branch of the Gordons in 1733. They built the north-west tower, in the left-centre of the photograph above; the building was then acquired by a family called Leith, and they added the north-west extension, furthest left on the photograph. The castle was acquired by the National Trust for Scotland in 1984.

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AB16. Gight Castle is near the left bank of the River Ythan, 15½km north-west of Ellon. It was built in the first half of the 16th century by a cadet branch of the Gordon family (later known as the Gordons of Gight). It was a 3-storey (plus attic) L-plan tower house, with a main block of dimensions, 16.2 X 11.2m over walls up to 2.1m thick, and a wing, 8.7m square containing the laird’s room. The main block was aligned north/south with the wing at the south end to the east. The lay-out was conventional, with a ground floor consisted of a kitchen, brewhouse and vaulted storerooms, a first floor dominated by the great hall and a private chamber. The levels above would have been high-status accommodation. The castle was originally surrounded by other structures, a courtyard to the south was probably enclosed with a barmkin (curtain wall) and contained the ancillary buildings. At some point during the castle's occupation, an additional range was added to the north-east side. Despite a serious feud with the Hay, Earls of Errol and a reluctance to abandon Catholicism after the , the Gordons of Gight remained the owners of the castle until the late 18th century. The last resident was Catherine Gordon Byron, whose son was George Gordon Byron, better known as the poet Lord Byron. Catherine's husband, Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron, accrued large gambling debts and in 1787 the castle was sold by his creditors to the Earl of Aberdeen. It soon became empty and drifted into ruin. The aerial view is from the north.

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AB17. Glenbuchat Castle is in the upper part of , 19km west of Alford. It was built by a member of the Gordon clan in1590, but they lost it for a while to the Crown after a rebellion in 1594. A member of another branch of the Gordon clan who became the owner in 1701 was an utterly committed Jacobite who was involved in 1689, 1715, and 1745, after which he went into exile for the remainder of his life. He had sold the castle in 1738 to Lord Braco, later Earl of Fife, who probably let it to tenants. It is not clear when the castle fell into ruin, but it was probably c1840, and it was taken into state guardianship in 1946. The castle is a roofless but otherwise complete Z-plan tower house of three storeys and a garret. It consists of a main block, of dimensions, 13.8 X 7.8m, with 6.6m square towers at diagonally opposite corners. In the two re-entrant angles, corbelled out above first-floor level, are large stair-. Round and square crown the corners of the tower. The hall, on the first floor, has large windows, and the walls are pierced by shot-holes; it was partitioned into 2 rooms, most likely in the 17th century. The basement is vaulted, and contained a kitchen, with a large fireplace, and a wine-cellar, with a small stair to the hall above. The private chambers on the upper floors were reached by the two turret stairs. The photograph is a view from just east of south.

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AB18. Hallforest Castle is beside the B994, a busy road from which it is just visible, just west of Kintore, and 6½km south of Inverurie. The castle is believed to have been built by Robert de Keith, Marischal of Scotland in or shortly after 1326, when he was granted the property by King Robert the Bruce. The castle was frequently attacked during the 17th century wars, and may have been abandoned shortly afterwards; the ruin may later have been used as a byre. The 5-storey tower had dimensions, 14.5 X 9.3m with walls 2.1m thick. The 2nd and 4th floors were vaulted and the hall was on the 3rd floor; only above the latter was there a staircase, below ladders must have served. There were entrances on the 2nd and 3rd floors. To the north there are traces of an enclosing barmkin wall, and to the north-west, traces of a possible ditch moat. The photograph is a view from the south-east; hall-windows and a doorway, to which wooden steps would have given access, can be seen.

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AB19. Huntly Castle is on the north side of the small town of the same name, 15km south-east of Keith. As suggested by the schematic, the first castle here was of the motte and bailey type, founded in the late 12th century; the property was then known as Strathbogie. After the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the estate and castle were granted to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly, a hamlet in Berwickshire which no longer exists. His male descendants retained the property until the 1430s when it passed by marriage to a member of the Seton family who adopted the Gordon surname; the heir was created Earl of Huntly in the 1440s. The name of the castle was changed to Huntly in a charter of 1506. The power and wealth of the family waxed, but inevitably they attracted hostility from Scottish Kings, to which they responded by rebelling, and their persistence in the Catholic religion also caused them trouble. The castle was seriously damaged in 1452, 1562, 1594, and during the Civil War, but rebuilt each time, becoming more sumptuous as the years passed; the family also prospered in the longer run, even if individual members suffered exile and execution, acquiring a marquisate in 1599, and a dukedom after the Restoration. Around this time, they left the castle, which began to decay, though it was still defensible when occupied by government soldiers in 1746. Attention is drawn to 2 built elements of what became an enclosure castle on the site of the original bailey in the 15th century, namely the L-shaped tower to the north, now standing only to basement level, with a main block of dimensions, 16.4 X 11.7m and walls almost 3m thick, and the 16th century palace to the south standing to full height, with its round tower at the west end, and containing a large hall, service rooms and high status private apartments. The aerial view from the south follows the schematic.

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AB20. Inverallochy Castle is in a fenced enclosure in farmland beside the B9033, 6km south-east of Fraserburgh. It comprised a tapering 4-sided courtyard of dimensions 23 X 18m enclosed by a wall c1.5m thick, with ranges lining the east and west sides, and the entrance to the north. The 5-storey tower, of which only the eastern gable and part of the north wall survive to any extent, is in the north-east corner of the courtyard, and was of dimensions10 X 8m. The basement, which contained the kitchen, was vaulted, and at the time of building was probably entered via a mural staircase, now lost. The tower itself was almost certainly entered at first floor level, through a door in the south wall, and a winding stair in the north- western corner of the tower serves the upper floors. The first floor contained the hall, and two mural chambers, one in each gable; above this were floors with accommodation and the attic level. The castle may have been built in the late 15th century, by a descendent of the Comyns. By the early 17th century it was in the hands of the Frasers, Lord Lovat, and in spite of their Jacobite involvements, it remained with them until the castle was abandoned, probably in the late 18th century. The photograph is a view from the west.

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AB21. Inverugie Castle is near the left bank of the River Ugie, in a hamlet which shares its name, 3km north-west of Peterhead. It is to the south of a prominent motte in farmed fields which was its predecessor, in an estate passed from the Cheynes to the Keiths in the mid-14th century. They built the present castle which comprised a main block of dimensions 19.1 X 9.1m, aligned north/south, with round towers of diameter 8.6m at the north-east and south-east corners. Cellars and a kitchen were on the lowest floor, with a hall above and private rooms in the towers and on two upper floors. There was a walled courtyard to the west with buildings within, but little remains, and entry was by a gateway on the south side. Presumably, the main block was occupied until the 19th century but it was blown up in 1899, leaving only a low ruin. I show an RCAHMs aerial photograph taken from the east, with the main block in the foreground, though it is not clear what the other buildings were.

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AB22. is reached from the A97, and is 12½km west of Alford. It was founded in the 1st half of the 13th century as a Royal castle by King Alexander II, but came into the hands of the Earls of Mar who continued building operations later in the century. It was visited twice by King Edward I as he essayed the conquest of Scotland, and he is thought to have initiated the building of the twin- towered gate-house which is similar to that at Harlech. He must also take the responsibility for the treatment of Scottish high-born women captured by his forces after a in 1306, which served to confirm his well-deserved brutal reputation. After the Scottish Wars of Independence had been won, the Earls of Mar recovered the castle, but the male line failed, and the castle became Royal in the 15th century, before being granted to the Elphinstones in 1507. They had trouble holding it and eventually it returned the Erskines, recognised as Earls of Mar again in the 17th century. However the decision of the 23rd Earl to back the Jacobites in 1715, resulted in the demolition of the castle; the ruin entered state guardianship in 1931. The main features of the enclosure castle, mostly dating to the 13th century can be seen in the aerial view from the east. The keep (also called the Snow Tower) to the west was16m in diameter over walls 3.5m thick, and there were 3 other mural towers additional to the gatehouse. The hall block at the top-centre of the aerial view had dimensions 22 X 12m, and there was a solar block between it and the keep, and a kitchen and chapel at its other end. The lower photograph looks east towards (from the left) the Warden’s Tower in the north corner, the long windows of the chapel, and another mural tower.

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AB23. Kindrochit Castle is on the right bank of the Cluny Water, in the centre of . Given the strategic location, it is likely that a defensive structure existed here from an early date, but the oldest remains date from the second half of the 14th century, and comprise a massive rectangular hall, of dimensions 30 X 9m, over walls 3m thick, with square towers at the corners, and another projecting from the east wall; the axis is north/south. In the early 15th century, part of the south-west end of the hall was demolished to permit the construction of a large rectangular tower-house, of dimensions 19.5 X 13.2m over walls 3.3m thick; curiously it was aligned towards south-east/ north-west, at an angle to the original hall. The ruins are only a few metres high so define the basements but little else, so it is speculation to suggest that the hall block was of 2-storeys with a hall and private rooms above a kitchen and storage rooms, while the tower was of 4 or 5 storeys, conventionally organised. King Robert II visited Kindrochit for hunting from 1371, and it became Crown property at some stage; it seems that the two King Roberts visit regularly, one after the other, until in 1390, the brother- in-law of King Robert III was granted a licence to build the tower referred to above. Although there were Keepers of the Castles of Kildrummy and Kindrochit through the 15th century, by the time the Earldom of Mar was granted to John Erskine in 1565 it seems likely that Kindrochit was in a state of disrepair, and it was considered ruinous by 1618. I failed to get a photograph giving a coherent picture of the ruins when I visited, and have found nothing of that kind since; that shown only conveys the extent and height of the ruins.

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AB24. Kineddar Castle is on an ‘east facing’ promontory above King Edward’s Burn, 6km north of Turriff. The enclosure castle was built by the Comyns in the 13th century. A curtain wall, 3m thick, enclosed a court of dimensions 45 X 35m, with a gateway on the west ‘landward’ side which may have been protected by twin D-shaped towers. At the east end of the court are traces of a round tower of diameter, 11m, and on the north side there was probably a hall block. It is assumed that the castle was destroyed by the Bruces in 1308, though there are hints of a longer life, even up to the 16th century, but there are no signs of later structures on the ground. The name ‘King Edward’, often given to the castle is more likely to be a corruption of the actual name than anything to do with the English King. The photograph is of a fragment of a .

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AB25. Knockhall Castle is on the right bank of the estuary of the River Ythan, 5½km south-east of Ellon. The 3-storey, L- plan tower house was built by William Sinclair, Lord Sinclair of Newburgh in 1565. The main block, aligned south-west/north- east, had dimensions, 10.8 X 7.7m over walls 1.2m thick, and a large wing 7.1m wide projected 6.6m to the west of the north-east end. The ground floor was vaulted and occupied by a kitchen (in the wing) and store room. The first floor was occupied by the great hall and the laird’s room in the wing.. The second floor was divided into two chambers both offering high status accommodation (each had a fireplace and latrine). A barmkin (curtain wall) enclosed a courtyard to the south of the Tower House within which would have been the ancillary buildings such a brewhouse, bakehouse and stables. A round turret on the south-east corner of the curtain wall doubled as a dovecot. The castle was sold to the Udnys in 1634, and came under attack during the Civil War but it was restored and some think that the wing was added at that time. The castle was burned out, accidentally, in 1734, and never restored, though in very recent years there have been suggestions that this might happen. The photograph was taken from the south.

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AB26. Pitsligo Castle is on a hilltop beside , 5½km west of Fraserburgh. The castle consisted of a 15th century tower house of dimensions 16 X 11.4m over walls 3.2m thick in a courtyard lined with ranges of 16th century buildings, as shown in the schematic. In addition is an outer court and formal approach to the west. The tower had a vaulted basement, with a mural access stair in the north-west corner. On first floor level was the hall, and above it was the laird’s room until it was removed in the early 18th century. The quadrangular courtyard dating to the 16th century, had a round tower in the north-east corner. The entrance to the courtyard was to the west through an arched tunnel within the western range of buildings, which survive as a series of small vaulted rooms. Larger buildings lined the north side, again all vaulted, and in the north-east corner was a kitchen complex next to the round tower, with additional storeys above. The courtyard buildings do not appear to have been finished on the southern side. To the west the outer court terminates at a large gateway with the date 1656. The 1st Lord Forbes probably built the castle, after receiving the property as a marriage portion. The family seemed to avoided most of the conflicts over the next 200 years, but they came out for the Jacobites in 1745 were attainted and their estate forfeited to the crown. The castle was looited by Flemish troops, and sold to a family called Garden who removed the roofs and left the castle to the elements. The photograph is a view from the west with the remains of the tower on the right.

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AB27. Ravenscraig Castle is on a rock above the right bank of the River Ugie, just outside Inverugie, and 3½km north-west of Peterhead. The lands had previously been held by the Cheynes, who presumably had their 13th century castle on the other side of the river, at Castle Hill. The Cheynes were closely linked to the Comyns, so it is likely that castle was destroyed by Robert and Edward Bruce in the early 14th century. Its successor was an L-plan tower house in a small courtyard or barmkin, built in the late 15th century by the Keiths. The main block of the tower, aligned east/west, has dimensions, 25.5 X 13.8m over walls 3.2m thick, and the wing projected 8.5m south from the west end of the main block and was 10.9m wide. There were 3 vaulted basement rooms, one of which is supplied with a narrow stair rising to the 1st floor, on which was the hall, and private rooms which were also found on the upper 2 floors. The castle remained in the hands of the Keith family, until they were forfeited after their involvement in the 1715 Jacobite rising, so it is likely the castle was abandoned at that time. The photograph is a view from the south.

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AB28. Slains Castle, sometimes referred to as New Slains, is set high on a clifftop beside the resort of , 11½km south of Peterhead. Old Slains Castle was 9km to the south-west, also on the coast, and was a tower raised in the 15th century by the Hay, Earls of Errol. They were Catholics who in 1594 rebelled against King James VI, with the result that their castle was blown up; today only a single wall fragment stands. The 9th Earl was allowed to return from exile in 1597, and built his new castle around the small rectangular Bowness Tower. He added a square courtyard with ranges along the walls. Additions were made in the late 17th century, and in the early years of the 18th century, but it was largely rebuilt in 1836, so that only the lower part of the tower survives from the 16th century. The Earls of Errol, continued to occupy the castle until 1916, but were then forced to sell up; the 22nd Earl departed for Kenya after a scandalous marriage in 1924, and was murdered in 1941, in a case which featured in the film, ‘White Mischief’. The castle fared no better, when its purchaser removed the roof and it quickly became ruined. Various plans to restore it have been developed in recent years, but there was no sign of activity 8 years ago. Dracula’s creator, Bram Stoker stayed there in the 19th century, so it is claimed that Slains Castle provided him with his setting. The photograph is a view from the west, with the remains of the old tower on the right.

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AB29. is 6½km east of Old Meldrum. The Preston Tower was built in the1420s by Sir John Forbes who had married the Preston heir to the estate. In the 1580s, his descendant built the rest of the complex shown in the schematic of the inner court. The family was compelled to sell the castle to pay off debts in 1716, and it was later acquired by the Gordon Earls (later Marquises) of Aberdeen. It was deserted in the mid-19th century and placed under state guardianship in 1929. The Preston Tower in the north- east of the courtyard is of dimensions 12.9 X 9m, and has a conventional layout with cellars below a hall, and bedrooms above that. The later main dwelling in the south range had a hall above cellars and a private room above a kitchen; other features are shown on the schematic. I arrived at the castle in early October, and was rather dismayed to find that Historic Scotland had closed it for the winter so I was reduced to peering through a gate and over a wall. It is easier to make sense of the building on the aerial view from the east obtained from the internet, than on my limited photographs.

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BF1. Auchendoun Castle is near the left bank of the River Fiddich, 3½km south-east of Dufftown. It was built in the 1470s for Thomas Cochrane, Master Mason for James III of Scotland and its initial configuration, shown in the schematic, (north towards the bottom right) was a stone 4-storey, L-plan Tower House set within a strong rectangular curtain wall on the site of an Iron Age fort. The tower house had dimensions, 14.3 X 10.5m over walls 2.5m thick, and the wing was 7.4m wide and projected 4.3m; the vaulted basement had staircases up to the hall which had a ribbed vault, and a private room above, while rooms in the wing were above a wine cellar. Along the walls of the courtyard of dimensions, 30.7 X 20.6m were ranges of ancillary buildings to the south-east and south-west. The main entrance was from the south-west. Cochrane was hanged from Lauder Bridge in 1482, along with other favourites of King James III, and it was passed to the Ogilvys, then the Gordons and back to the Ogilvys, suffering damage from assaults due to clan warfare, through the 16th century. The Royalist defeat in the Civil War led to Auchindoun Castle being confiscated, and in 1660, King Charles II granted it to the Marquis of Huntly. However that family had no real need for it and by the 18th century the castle was derelict.

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BF2. Balvennie Castle is beside the Glenfiddich Distillery on the north side of the village of Dufftown, 15km south-west of Keith. The enclosure castle of the Comyns may date to the 12th century, but it was wrecked by King Robert the Bruce in 1308, and although given shortly afterwards to Sir James Douglas, it may not have been restored by the Black Douglases until the early 15th century. They lost it half a century later, and it was then held by Stewart Earls of Atholl, until the 17th century. It was occupied by both sides during the Civil War, and then had a series of owners before the last of them, named Duff, built a new house nearby in c1720, and allowed the castle to fall into decay. The curtain walls survive in part from the earliest days of the castle and outside them are remains of a moat and outer wall. There is no keep, and the courtyard buildings are rather confusing because they represent different manifestations of rooms with the same functions; so there were kitchens and cellars, with halls above, in the south and east ranges. The Atholl building to the north-east was added in the 16th century, and provided high status accommodation while utilising the older hall to its south. The aerial view is taken from the east, so matches up with the plan.

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BF3. Blairfindy Castle is just east of Glenlivet Distillery, 10km north of Tomintoul. It is an L-plan tower house built in the 1580s, possibly on the site of an earlier castle of the Grants. The main block has dimensions 10.6 X 7.3m, aligned south-west/north-east, with the wing in the west corner, 4.8m square. The basement rooms may have been vaulted, and above was the hall, and above it, bedrooms; others were in the upper floors of the wing. Blairfindy was first tenanted by Gordons from Grants, then purchased by the former in 1606, and the Grants became tenants. The castle was used as the prison for the 2nd Marquis of Huntly in 1649 before his execution, by which time it may have been used normally as a hunting lodge. It was probably burned in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland’s soldiers after Culloden, and it remained unoccupied after this. The photograph was taken from the west, steel bands appear to hold the main block together.

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BF4. Boyne Castle is on a promontory created by a loop of the Burn of Boyne, 2½km east of . The Ogilvies obtained the estate in 1488, and then there was a castle, now vanished apart from a dovecot, on the opposite (right) bank of the burn, nearer the sea. The present castle was built in c1580, and was a throwback to earlier times, comprising a rectangle of dimensions, 27 X 24.8m, enclosed by a curtain wall, 1.4m thick with round towers at each corner as shown in the schematic. The west range comprised cellars below a hall and private room, and above another floor of bedrooms and an attic. The east range, now gone, comprised service buildings like a kitchen and brewhouse. The entry gatehouse to the south may also have backed onto a block with apartments. Ogilvies continued in occupation until the 18th century, by which time the estate had been sold to the Earl of Findlater, also an Ogilvie, and he had no need of the castle which fell into decay. The aerial view is from the north-east.

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BF5. Crombie Castle is beside a farm steading, 13½km west of Turriff. It was built in the 1540s by the Innes family, but in 1624, the then owner was outlawed, and the castle was lost, passing through many hands before being acquired by Sir Thomas Innes in the 20th century. It was substantially modified in the 17th and 19th centuries with the addition of wings, and restoration work was started in the 1930s, but not completed; however, renovations begun in 2011 had more success, and the castle is again a private residence. The original castle was an L- shaped building with a main block of dimensions 11 X 7m, and a wing 6.7m square projected eastwards from the north end of the main block. The layout was fairly conventional with a kitchen below a drawing room in the wing, and cellars beneath a hall in the main block. The 3rd storey contained bedrooms and there were attics above. I shall not attempt to detail surrounding buildings which were added later. The photograph of the upper storeys was taken from a public road to the south, and attention is drawn to the bartizans at the southern end of the main block; the restorations have not been entirely sympathetic as evidenced by windows and chimneys.

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BF6. Drumin Castle is on the left bank of the River Livet, just upstream of its junction with the River Avon, and 10½km north of Tomintoul. It was built in the 14th century by either Alexander Stewart, ‘the Wolf of Badenoch’ or his illegitimate son Andrew. It passed to the Gordons in the 15th century, and was deserted by them for Blairfindy in the 16th century. Because only half the castle, a tower house, stands to any height, its dimensions cannot be given, though the walls were 2.7m thick at ground level. The layout was probably fairly conventional, a vaulted storage chamber below the hall, and the laird’s room above. The photograph is a view from the south; the vaulted cellar is below the wooden railings.

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BF7. Findlater Castle is spectacularly sited on a clifftop forming a small promontory below higher cliffs, 3km east of Cullen; it is reached from a minor road off the A98, which leaves a walk of a bit more than ½km, past a dovecot. The 1st castle was built in the 13th century, and was contended by the Scots and Norwegians, before the Battle of Largs in 1263 settled matters in favour of the former. The ruins to be seen now, date from 1455, and are of a castle built by the Ogilvy family. It was lost temporarily to the Gordons in 1562, but recovered by the Ogilvys in the same year. They only continued in occupation until 1600, before moving to a large house in Cullen, leaving the castle to fall into ruin. My own photograph taken from near the viewing point, on the clifftop south of the castle, gives a good idea of the precipitous nature of the site, but the lower aerial photograph taken from the north-west and obtained from the internet gives a better idea of the form of the castle. The principle building is a ruinous block on the steep west slope, (in the centre of the lower photograph) though only vaulted basements, which included a kitchen and a dungeon, remain as the hall and other rooms above have disappeared. To the east of the promontory are traces of other buildings and a curtain wall, while access was by a narrow pathway which included a bridge over a ravine.

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BF8. Findochty Castle is to the west of the coastal village of that name, 4½km north- east of Buckie. It stood on a mound, once surrounded by water, but now by farmland, with higher ground all around; it is c400m from the sea. The earliest reference to the lands of Findochty is in 1440, in a charter of King James II; perhaps its most significant reappearance in documents was in 1556 when Mary, Queen of Scots awarded the property to a James Ogilvie. He may have been responsible for building Findochty Castle, probably then regarded as a manor rather than a castle, given the wording of a grant to the Ord family in 1586. The building, with a tower added, remained with their descendants until 1724. It is recorded as ruined later in that century, and yet it formed part of a much extended house in the 19th century, which in turn became ruinous, and was demolished before 1900; the west wall of the present building was an internal wall of the enlarged mansion. The photograph, taken with an unhelpful sun, from the A942 to the north-east shows the standing remains of the north and east walls, with the tower protruding northwards from the west end of the former. There is little point in providing dimensions because the extent of the building which survives may bear little relation to the original castle/house, given the history.

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BF9. Fordyce Castle is an ornamented, 3-storey, L-plan house on the main street of the village of that name, which is 14½km west of Banff. It was built for Thomas Menzies, later Provost of Aberdeen, in 1562. The castle passed to the Earls of Seafield by marriage, and was used as a school-house in the 18th century. Thereafter it decayed until the late-20th century when a series of owners carried out restoration work. The fabric is heavily pointed random rubble, with ashlar surrounds to doors and windows. The main block has dimensions 8.8 X 6.7m and the wing, 3.2 X 2.7m; the main hall is on the 1st floor with cellars below and bedrooms above. There are two stair turrets, one set in the angle of the ‘L’, the other on the south-east corner linking the hall and the bedrooms with the appearance of a bartizan. The gun-loops visible in the photograph, taken from the west make it clear that defence was in the mind of its builder, though significant action is not recorded. The whitewashed plain block, also of 3 storeys to the north of the wing, was added in the early 18th century.

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BF10. Gauldwell Castle is near the right bank of the River Fiddich, 6km south-east of Rothes. The enclosure castle may have been built in the 13th century. It appears that there was a pentagonal court, and along the west wall, which is 2.5m thick, are traces of a hall block of dimensions, 21 X 8m, and to its south remnants of some kind of solar. The castle was held by the Murrays, though when is not known, and of course Mary, Queen of Scots is alleged to have spent a night there in 1562. Its present condition leads me to believe that it cannot have been in a habitable state beyond the 17th century. The photograph is of the surviving west wall.

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BF11. Inaltrie Castle sits on a platform, D-shaped and between 30 and 45m across, above a minor road, and higher above the Deskford Burn, 4km south of Cullen. The castle belonged to the Ogilvy family, and its construction date has been tentatively assigned to the 13th century. The masonry comprises a single wall 17m long, perhaps 3m high, and 1.7m thick at the base, with projecting stumps at the end which imply that the wall was to the south of a building, and there are indications of a projecting latrine turret. That seems to be the sum total of knowledge about the castle, but given the length of the wall it seems less likely to have been part of a tower than a hall block.. The photograph was taken from the north-west.

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BF12. Inchdrewer Castle is isolated amongst fields, 4½km south-west of Banff. The property had various owners from the 14th century onwards, but in the early 16th century it was acquired by the Ogilvies who built an L-plan tower, more a house than a castle. The title, Lord Banff, was acquired by them in 1642 and the tower became the baronial seat. It remained so until the 8th Lord died in 1803, but decayed thereafter. It was partially restored in the 1960s, but never reoccupied, and decay set in again. The original tower comprised only the main block to the south, containing rooms marked cellar on the schematic, though one was originally a kitchen; it was of dimensions, 10.5 X 6.2m, and the wing to its north protruded 3.4m. The hall was in the next storey up, and above it on 2 floors were private wings. In the 18th century, the main block of the castle was extended eastwards. Ranges were at some stage, most likely also in the 18th century, built on the east and west sides of a courtyard to the north of the original tower. Round towers and bartizans give the castle quite a picturesque appearance, at least from a distance, as illustrated by the photograph taken from the south-west

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BF13. Kinnairdy Castle is close to the right bank of the River Deveron, and the A97, 11½km west of Turriff. The first castle on the site was a motte and bailey, with a small stone keep, which was incorporated in a 6- storey tower house in the 15th century by the Innes family. The motte had been surrounded by a curtain wall with a high arched entrance in the north-west corner; the outline of this arch is still visible in the west wall of the tower. In the early 17th century it was sold to a Crichton, and then to a church minister called Gregory. His brother, David Gregory was the next owner, and he is famous for pioneering the use of a barometer for making weather predictions, and also living to the age of 95 and fathering 25 children, 3 of whom became professors. His 3rd son sold the castle which had decayed somewhat when his aged father went to Holland to avoid the disturbances of 1715; it was restored by the new owners and the upper 2 storeys were removed; it was eventually regained by the Innes family in 1923, and again restored. The castle was an L-plan tower, the stair tower being a late 16th century addition, and a lower building was added to its east, perhaps in c1500, perhaps later in the 16th century. My own photograph, taken from the north-west is above one obtained from the internet, taken from the south; the gun-loops visible in both views contrast with the larger more modern windows.

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KC1. Benholm Tower is just north of an 18th century mansion, 8½km east of Laurencekirk. It was built in c1475 by a family called Lundie, but soon passed to Ogilvys and then the Keiths of nearby Dunnottar. They sold the tower to a family called Scott in 1659, and it is reasonable to assume that the tower ceased to be inhabited when they built their mansion in c1760. The mansion fell into disrepair after the 2nd World War, and while a proposal for the restoration of the tower was under consideration in 1992, the eastern half of the tower collapsed to the ground. The mansion beside it has indeed been restored, but it is highly unlikely that the tower will be lived in again. It is a private site, but after a foray along minor roads and a farm track, I was able to glimpse the top of it through trees, but I could not obtain a useful photograph, so have obtained one from the internet, a view from the south-west. The tower had dimensions, 11.5 X 8.7m, with walls 1.8m thick. It contained 2 vaulted cellars, below a hall, with 2 floors of private rooms above. There was an attic within a parapet.

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KC2. is in a large estate, 3km east of . It was an L-plan tower house built by the Burnetts of Leys in the late 16th century; they were granted lands in Deeside in the 14th century by King Robert the Bruce, and lived for some time on a fortified island in the Loch of Leys. Crathes Castle had vaulted cellars, and above a vaulted hall; the dimensions of the main block may have been 8.4m square. The Burnetts kept out of the Civil War, and the Jacobite Rebellions, so retained their property without difficulty, through until the 1950s when it was given to the National Trust for Scotland.

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KC3. Dunnottar Castle is on a high flat- topped rock, protruding into the sea, c3km south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. Dunnottar has played a prominent role in the history of Scotland through to the 18th century Jacobite risings because of its strategic location and defensive strength. William Wallace captured Dunnottar from the English in 1297, burning English soldiers alive in the church which was probably then the only stone building there. In 1336 King Edward III of England refortified the site but the Scottish Regent, A - Gatehouse and Benholm's Lodging, B – Tunnels, C - Tower Sir Andrew Murray, captured and destroyed house, D – Forge, E - Waterton's Lodging, F – Stables, G – Palace, the newly raised defences. In 1392, William H – Chapel, I - gate, J - Whigs' Vault, K - Bowling green, Keith completed construction of the tower L - Sentry Box, M – Cliffs, N - North Sea house at Dunnottar; created Earls Marshal in the mid-15th century, they were to hold the castle until the 18th century, though not without alarms. Cromwellian soldiers took the lightly garrisoned castle in 1652, but not before the Scottish Crown Jewels which had been secreted there, had been moved. In 1685, after the Monmouth/Argyll revolt, prisoners were held in the Whig Vault in atrocious conditions and a number died. The 10th Earl Marshal supported the Jacobites in 1715, and was forfeited; shortly after that the castle was dismantled. The lay-out on the rock is shown in the schematic; one of the two oldest buildings, the L-shaped tower house of the 1390s has dimensions 12.3 X 7.8m with a wing, 5.7m wide. The arrangements within were conventional with a hall above stores and a kitchen, and below private accommodation. Waterton’s lodging was extra accommodation built in the 16th century. The palace was high status accommodation built in the late-16th and early-17th centuries, though the chapel has surviving 13th century masonry. Benholm’s lodging beside the gatehouse was a 16th century barracks. The photograph is a view from the north-west; Dunnottar Castle is iconic because of its unique situation.

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MY1. Blervie Castle is 4½km south-east of Forres, visible from a minor public road. A castle here is recorded as in the possession of the Comyns in the mid-13th century, but the ruin to be seen now dates from the late 16th century, and was built by a branch of the Dunbar family. It passed through other hands and was largely demolished in the 18th century to supply masonry for a house. Originally it was Z-shaped with two towers, 5 storeys high; one containing the kitchen, hall, and bedrooms above, the other, the owner’s private apartments, and it is the latter that has partially survived. The photograph was taken from the south-west, and shows some internal features of the rubble-built building.

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MY2. Brodie Castle is 6km south-west of Forres, on the north side of the A96. The estate came into the possession of the Brodie family in the 12th century, and the present 35th laird still lives there, though it is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Although older elements may be embedded, the present castle has at its core the building completed in 1567 as a typical Scottish "Z-plan" tower house, with a 4-storey rectangular main block, of dimensions11.4 X 7.5m supplemented by square towers set against diagonally opposite corners of the rectangle. The tower would have been topped off with corbelled out and bartizans (circular turrets typically crowned by a steeply pitched "witches hat" roof). However, it required substantial rebuilding after it was attacked and taken by Lord Lewis Gordon in 1645 during the Civil War, then was altered and augmented by William Burn in the early 19th century, and further changed later that century, particularly as regards the entrance hall. The view below is from the south-east.

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MY3. Burgie Castle is 6.5km east of Forres, reachable by a minor road leading south from the A96. This castle is in many ways a twin of Blervie Castle, a few kilometres to the south-west. It also was built by a member of the Dunbar family at the very end of the 16th century, and comprised two towers. The resemblance extends to its demise, because it was largely demolished to supply masonry for a house, though slightly later in 1802. The photograph, taken from the north-east shows the tower which remains, albeit rather lost amongst trees, and as with Blervie it was the domestic block housing the laird’s private rooms. The 6-storey tower is rubble-built and has battlements at the roof, though there are no other obvious military features.

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MY4. Duffus Castle is in open country, 10½km north-west of Elgin. The first castle on the site is attributed to Freskin, a semi-legendary Flemish knight who was granted the lands round about by King David I in c1140. This castle was a timber and earthworks structure, of motte and bailey type which was held by its founder’s male descendants until the late 13th century, though by then they had adopted the name de Moravia (Murray). An intermission when the castle passed by marriage to a family called Cheyne, who gave early support to King , but changed sides later in the War of Scottish Independence, was followed by a marriage which brought the castle back to the Murrays in the mid-14th century. At this time the stone castle was built; it featured in various episodes of Scottish history, including capture by the Marquis of Montrose in the Civil War, but remained in the hands of the Murrays until the early 18th century. At this time it was sold, but its purchaser quickly left the castle for a new mansion nearby, built in part with quarried castle masonry. The castle was transferred to state protection in the 1920s. The lay- out is shown in the schematic; the rectangular keep on the motte had dimensions, 19 X 15.2m, and had walls over 2m thick. There was a chapel and a prison on lower floors, and domestic rooms and a hall on the upper floors. A hall block range was added in the mid-15th century on the north side of the bailey, but now it survives only as low ruins. Much of the curtain wall which protected the bailey still stands, and outside it is a moat. The photograph is a view from the south-east, looking along the bailey curtain wall towards the keep with the hall range on the right.

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MY5. Elgin Castle was at the top of Lady Hill, immediately west of the city centre. It began life as a timber and earth, motte and bailey fortress, mentioned in an 1160 charter of King Malcolm IV, and there was a tradition that King Duncan was taken there to die after his defeat in battle by his successor, King Macbeth in 1040. The hill has been shown to be largely natural, and a north-western finger of raised ground projects from the lower slopes to form a possible bailey. In 1296 and 1303 during the Wars of Scottish Independence, King Edward I occupied the castle, which by then was of stone, but it was taken at the 3rd attempt by supporters of King Robert the Bruce in 1308 and destroyed. Never rebuilt, there are probable remains of a tower, of dimensions 20 X 12m, with walls 3m thick, and lower down, a length of curtain wall. There is also evidence of an outer northern stone-based earthen rampart, with a timber or . The building of a demolished Observatory and the 1839 memorial column to George, 5th Duke of Gordon has considerably mutilated the summit. The tower remains on the summit are shown in the photograph.

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MY6. Lochindorb Castle is an enclosure castle, on an island which is at least partly artificial, in a loch of that name, 11km north- west of Grantown-on-Spey. It was built by the Comyns, Lords of Badenoch, in the late 13th century, and was occupied by King Edward I in 1303 and again by his son and successor, who strengthened it, a few years later. King Robert the Bruce took it a few years later, but unusually did not destroy it. From 1372 it was occupied by 'The Wolf of Badenoch', Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, who used it as a base for his raiding. Its destruction was ordered in 1458, as it had been fortified against the King, but while it was rendered uninhabitable, the walls remained largely intact. There is a quadrilateral curtained enclosure of dimensions 48 X 38m with angles strengthened by round towers. No special arrangements appear to have been made for the defence of the entrance gateway, which is centrally placed in the east wall and gives access to a landing stage on the loch shore. Traces of a range of buildings along with south wall of the main enclosure are still discernible; many of the internal buildings were probably wooden. The aerial view is from the west, the lower photograph was taken from the west.

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MY7. Rothes Castle is on a freely accessible spur near the centre of the village of that name, 16½km south-east of Elgin. The 1st castle on the site was most likely built by Peter de Pollock in c1200, and it was probably an earth and timber construct. By the end of that century, there may have been a curtain wall bounding an enclosure in which there was a stone keep of some description. It is believed that King Edward I stayed there once, but nothing is known of any military action involving the castle, nor unlike many does it seem to have been dismantled by the Scots. The castle passed to the Leslie family in 1390, and they acquired the Earldom of Rothes in 1457. The castle was contested during the Civil War, and after, being seriously damaged in 1662; it was dismantled shortly afterwards, and quarried. All that remains are earthworks defining a triangular platform, and a 21m length of curtain wall, up to 7m high, shown in the photograph.

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MY8. Spynie Palace, an enclosure castle in all but name, is 4km north-east of Elgin. The cathedral of Moray was here until 1224, when the present building was erected in Elgin; the small loch which is now to its north-west reached the sea until drained by Thomas Telford in 1808, and had a harbour serving the complex. Nothing survives of the Bishop’s palace of this period, but a tower and some of a curtain wall built in the 14th century, survived the raid carried out by Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, against the bishop in 1390. Most of the buildings which stand now were erected in the 15th and 16th centuries as indicated by the schematic, but the Reformation saw the end of the bishopric for a period at the end of the latter century. However, bishops were reintroduced to the Scottish church in the early 17th century, and the palace was restored to the , but it was taken by during the Civil War, though Royalist forces tried and failed to recover it in 1645. However, bishops reappeared at Spynie again after the Restoration, but the Revolution of 1688 saw their final abolition, and the palace fell into ruins thereafter. The formidable 15th century tower house engrosses its predecessor at lower levels, and has dimensions 18.8 X 13.4m, and rises to a height of 22.5m at the wall-walk. A dungeon was in the basement, along with the usual store rooms, above was the bishop’s private hall, and above that private rooms. Along the north curtain wall, a new hall of dimensions, 26 X 10m, was added in c1500, with kitchens to the west. The photograph was taken from the south-west.

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MY9. Tor Castle, otherwise the 'Castle of Dallas' is just north of the village of Dallas, 15km south-west of Elgin. It was probably erected in the mid-15th century by Robert Cochrane, then the court architect, and was enlarged periodically until the mid-17th century, when it was abandoned. All that stands now is a fragment of wall, 9m high, but from older records it is thought that a tower of dimensions, 13 X 9.6m with walls 2.2m thick, once occupied the site. The entrance and drawbridge of the castle faced east, over a moat which is said to have been paved with stone flags.

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