Delgatie Castle is a castle near Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

A castle has stood on the site of Delgatie Castle since the year 1030 AD, although the earliest parts of the castle standing today were built between 1570 and 1579. Additional wings and a chapel were added in 1743.

The castle was stripped from the disgraced Henry de Beaumont, Earl of Buchan after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and given to Clan Hay (later to become the Earls of Erroll). Mary, Queen of Scots, was a guest at the castle in 1562 after the Battle of Corrichie.

Like many castles, Delgatie is rumoured to be haunted. A number of reports of a ghostly red-haired figure, supposedly one Alexander Hay, were made by soldiers posted there during the Second World War. The castle's information boards, mostly written by Captain Hay who restored the house in the 1950s, recount that the ghost was first seen when a body was found bricked up in a priest hole.

Architecturally, the castle consists of a keep, adjoining house and two later wings. Notable features include a very wide turnpike stair and painted ceilings dating from the 16th century in some rooms. In many places may be seen the Hay family arms including the three cattle yokes which recall a farmer and his two sons who were instrumental in the defeat of a Danish raiding party at Cruden Bay. (See Clan Hay for more detail.)

Today, the castle and its gardens are owned by the Delgatie Castle Trust. The castle, grounds, and café are open to the public throughout the summer months and suites within the castle itself and a number of cottages the estate are available to rent. There is also a popular fishing site on the river passing through.

Delgatie Castle

Account

by category

Login

Name

by region

Title

Name in English

Craigston Castle is located near Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and is a historic home of the Urquhart family. It was built 1604–07 by John Urquhart of Craigfintry (died 1631), known as the Tutor of Cromarty. The castle is composed of two main wings flanking the entrance and connected by an elevated arch, and surmounted by a richly corbelled parapet. There are bases for corner turrets near the top corner of each wing, but the turrets themselves do not appear to have ever been completed. The wood carvings in the drawing room depict biblical themes and Clan Urquhart heraldic artifacts.

Craigston Castle belongs to the "Bell group" of Scottish castles, designed by masons of the Bell or Bel family, and which, according to H. Gordon Slade, "together form perhaps Scotland’s finest and the most distinctive contribution to Western architecture". The castle is still owned and lived in by the Urquhart family, who trace their descent back to Adam Urquhart, 14th-century sheriff of Cromarty, although according to Sir Thomas Urquhart, translator of Rabelais, the family can be traced back to Adam and Eve through "Termuth", who he states found Moses in the rushes, as well as many other fantastic ancestors.

John Urquhart of Craigfintry, known as the "Tutor of Cromarty", built the castle in 1604 to 1607, and the design of the castle appears to show his influence as compared with other examples of the "Bell group". It was sold by the Urquharts in 1657, but bought back in 1739 by Captain John Urquhart, known as "the pirate", great-grandson of the builder. The new owner built the flanking wings, and laid out new gardens, though apparently not to the designs prepared in 1733 by William Adam, the foremost architect of the time. In the 1830s John Smith, the architect of Balmoral Castle, prepared designs for an extensive remodelling, though only a new entrance doorway was built. Craigston Castle is now a category A listed building. The Urquhart family retain possession of the castle, and have recently started to host weddings and other events, as well as letting it out as accommodation.

Craigston Castle

Fyvie Castle is a castle in the village of Fyvie, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

The earliest parts of Fyvie Castle date from the 13th century – some sources claim it was built in 1211 by William the Lion. Fyvie was the site of an open-air court held by Robert the Bruce, and Charles I lived there as a child. Following the Battle of Otterburn in 1390, it ceased to be a royal stronghold and instead fell into the possession of five successive families – Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon and Leith – each of whom added a new tower to the castle. The oldest of these, the Preston tower (located on the far right as one faces the main facade of Fyvie), dates to between 1390 and 1433. The impressive Seton tower forms the entrance, and was erected in 1599 by Alexander Seton; Seton also commissioned the great processional staircase several years later. The Gordon tower followed in 1778 , and the Leith in 1890.

Inside, the castle stronghold features a great wheel stair, a display of original arms and armour, and a collection of portraits.

Manus O'Cahan and Montrose fought a successful minor battle against the Covenant Army at Fyvie Castle on October 28, 1644. The battlefield is currently under research to be inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009. Following Victorian trends, the grounds and adjoining Loch Fyvie were landscaped in the 19th century. The Scottish industrialist Alexander Leith (later Baron Leith of Fyvie) bought the castle in 1885. It was sold to the National Trust for Scotland in 1984 by his descendants.

To the East there is a walled garden which is currently a garden of Scottish Cultivated Fruits. There is evidence for two other walled gardens closer to the castle itself to its West and South. The one to the west appears on an estate plan of 1768.

Hauntings
The castle (like many places in Scotland) is said to be haunted.A story is told that in 1920 during renovation work the skeleton of a woman was discovered behind a bedroom wall. On the day the remains were laid to rest in Fyvie cemetery, the castle residents started to be plagued by strange noises and unexplained happenings. Fearing he had offended the dead woman, the Laird of the castle had the skeleton exhumed and replaced behind the bedroom wall, at which point the haunting ceased. It is said that there is a secret room in the south-west corner of the castle that must remain sealed, lest anyone entering meet with disaster. It is unclear if this is the same room in which the skeleton was found. There is also an indelible blood stain, two ghosts and two curses associated with this place.

One of the curses has been attributed to the prophetic laird, Thomas the Rhymer. The curse is said to have been part of the mysterious three weeping stones. Only one weeping stone is known to exist and is kept at the castle. The other two have never been found.

Fyvie Castle

Huntly Castle is a ruined castle in Huntly in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was the ancestral home of the chief of Clan Gordon, Earl of Huntly.

History
Architecturally the L plan castle consists of a well-preserved five-storey tower with an adjoining great hall and supporting buildings. Areas of the original ornate facade and interior stonework remain. A mound in the grounds of the castle is all that remains of an earlier 12th century motte. Originally named Strathbogie, the castle was granted to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly in the 14th century. King Robert the Bruce was a guest of the castle in 1307 prior to his defeat of the Earl of Buchan.

It was fired in 1452 by a force under the command of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray. In 1449 the king was at war with the powerful Black Douglases, the Gordons stood on the king's side and, with their men involved in the south of the country, the Earl of Moray, a brother of the Earl of Douglas, took the opportunity to sack the Gordon lands, setting Huntly Castle ablaze. The Gordons returned and quickly destroyed their enemies.

Although the castle was burned to the ground, a grander castle was built in its place. In 1496, the pretender to the English throne, Perkin Warbeck, was married to Lady Catherine Gordon the daughter of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, witnessed by King James IV of Scotland at Edinburgh. James IV came to Huntly in October 1501 and gave gifts of money to the stonemasons working on the castle. In October 1503, James IV came again and played in a shooting contest at a "prop", and he came back again in the following October. These visits were part of his annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Duthac at Tain.

William MacKintosh was executed on 23 August 1550 at Castle Strathbogie.

Wings were added to the castle in the 16th and 17th centuries. The English diplomat Thomas Randolph stayed two nights in September 1562, and wrote that the castle was "fayer, beste furnishede of anye howse that I have seen in thys countrie." An eyewitness description of the death of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly in 1576, compiled by Richard Bannatyne gives some details of how the castle was used. The Earl suffered a stroke, or a collapse caused by food-poisoning, while playing football outside the Castle on the Green. He was taken through the outer-gate to his bedchamber in the round tower of the palace block, which was then called the "New Warke of Strathbogie." The Earl's bedchamber was adjacent to his "Grit Chalmer", the Great Chamber. After the Earl died, his body was laid out in the "Chamber of Dais", another name for the Great Chamber, and his valuables were secured in the bedchamber. After the Earl's steward left the Castle a number of alleged supernatural events occurred beginning with the sudden collapse of one of the servants in the "Laich Chalmer", Low Chamber. This "Laich Chalmer" was in another part of the castle, under a stair opposite the "Auld Hall." On the following day a servant went up to the Gallery at the top of the "New Warke" where spices (which were precious) were stored. This servant and two companions also collapsed and when revived complained of feeling cold. After the Earl's body was embalmed and taken to the chapel, his brother sat on a bench in the Hall by the Great Chamber door, and heard unexplained sounds from the chamber. It was said that "there is not a live thing bigger than a mouse may enter in that chamber with the door locked."

In 1640 the Castle was occupied by the Scottish Covenantor army under Major-General Robert Monro (d. 1680). James Gordon Parson of Rothiemay tells us how the house "was preserved from being rifled or defaced, except some emblems and imagery, which looked somewhat popish and superstitious lycke; and therefore, by the industry of one captain James Wallace (one of Munro's foote captaines) were hewd and brocke doune off the frontispiece of the house; but all the rest of the frontispiece containing Huntly's scutcheon, etc, was left untouched, as it stands to this daye."

Captured in October 1644, the castle was briefly held by James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose against the Duke of Argyll. In 1647 it was gallantly defended against General David Leslie by Lord Charles Gordon, but its 'Irish' garrison was starved into surrender. Savage treatment was meted out, for the men were hanged and their officers beheaded. In December of the same year Huntly himself was captured and on his way to execution at Edinburgh was detained, by a refinement of cruelty, in his own mansion. His escort were shot against its walls. In 1650 Charles II visited briefly on his way to the Battle of Worcester, defeat and exile. The Civil War brought an end to the Gordon of Huntly family's long occupation of the castle.

In 1689, during the first Jacobite rising, the castle was briefly the headquarters for Viscount Dundee and his Jacobite army, at the end of April, just after the start of the revolt. However, by the early eighteenth century the castle was already in decay and providing material for predatory house builders in the village. In 1746, during a later Jacobite rising, it was occupied by British government troops. Thereafter, it became a common quarry until a groundswell of antiquarian sentiment in the 19th century came to the rescue of the noble pile.

Huntly Castle remained under the ownership of the Clan Gordon until 1923. Today, the remains of the castle are cared for by Historic Scotland as a scheduled monument.

Pure Strength I, a major international strongman competition, was held on the grounds of Huntly Castle in 1987. The winner of the contest was Jón Páll Sigmarsson of Iceland.

Huntly Castle

Pitsligo Castle is a ruined castle half a mile east of Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was described by W. Douglas Simpson as one of the nine castles of the Knuckle, referring to the rocky headland of north-east Aberdeenshire.

It originated as a 15th-century keep. There is an arched gateway in the west wall of the outer court, with the date 1656 and the arms of the Forbeses and Erskines. In the inner court the date is shown as 1663. At the north-east angle of the courtyard there is a tall flanking drum-tower. The main tower had three vaulted stories, but almost all above the lowest has disappeared. There is a stair tower at the north-east corner which is better preserved. There are panels dated 1577 over the courtyard doorway.

It is listed by Historic Scotland as a scheduled monument.

Pitsligo Castle

Tolquhon Castle (pronounced: "toh-hon", and sometimes spelt 'Tolquhoun') is located in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland. It lies about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-west of Pitmedden, and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Tarves. The castle was built by William Forbes, 7th Laird of Tolquhon, between 1584 and 1589 as an extension to the earlier tower house known as Preston's Tower. Although ruined, the castle has been described as "the most characteristic château of the Scots Renaissance". It is in the care of Historic Scotland and is open to the public.

Preston's Tower was constructed in the early 15th century, either by Sir Henry Preston or by his son-in-law Sir William Forbes, who inherited part of the Preston lands in 1420, following Sir Henry's death. His descendant William Forbes, 7th Laird of Tolquhon (died 1596), began work on a new castle in 1584, retaining the Preston Tower but adding new, more comfortable accommodation. He also improved the gardens and parkland around the house. King James VI was entertained at Tolquhon in 1589. The new buildings were arranged around a courtyard, and included an elaborate gatehouse, and a first-floor gallery. An inscription on the gatehouse records that "AL THIS WARKE EXCEP THE AULD TOWR WAS BEGUN BE WILLIAM FORBES 15 APRIL 1584 AND ENDIT BE HIM 20 OCTOBER 1589". The home of a "Renaissance man", Tolquhon was designed for show rather than defence, and was the work of the mason-architect Thomas Leper or Leiper. Leper's distinctive triple shot-holes flank the main entrance, and are also found at nearby Arnage Castle and Dean Castle in Ayrshire. Also unusual is the stone tilework in the main hall.

After William Forbes' death his descendants continued to occupy Tolquhon until 1718, when they were forced to move out due to debts incurred by the failure of the Darien scheme. The castle subsequently decayed and is now a ruin. It is in the guardianship of Historic Scotland and is open to the public. Tolquhon is also a scheduled monument.

Description
The main entrance is on the north range of the castle, with the Preston Tower forming the north-east corner. The gallery occupies the first floor of the west range, while the main hall is in the south range, accessed via a stair from the courtyard. A prison was located within the south-east tower. To the north of the main quadrangle is the walled outer courtyard, with the remains of a doocot.