Harthill Castle is a large 17th-century

Z-plan castle Z-plan is a form of castle design common in England and Scotland. The Z-plan castle has a strong central rectangular tower with smaller towers attached at diagonally opposite corners. Prominent examples of the Z-plan include Brodie Castle in ...

, about north-west of

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the vall ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, south of Kirkton of

Oyne Oyne is a small village in rural Aberdeenshire at the bottom of Bennachie in Scotland. Locality The village has limited local resources. It once had a railway station which closed 6 May 1968, and now has a daily bus service to Inverurie away ...

.Coventry, Martin (1997) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p.200 It may also be known as Torries Castle. {{coord, 57.3156, N, 2.5214, W, display=title

History

The Leiths held the property from 1531, and they probably built the castle: a date of 1601 or 1638 is disputed. Patrick Leith served with

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612 – 21 May 1650) was a Scottish nobleman, poet and soldier, Lord Lieutenant, lord lieutenant and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wa ...

, but was captured and beheaded by John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton. The last Leith of Harthill is believed to have set the castle on fire deliberately. The Erskines of Pittodrie acquired the property. Having been reduced to a roofless shell it was restored in the 1970s and is still occupied; restoration was completed in 1978.

Structure

The castle has a main block comprising four

storeys A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). Th ...

and a

garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a bu ...

. There are towers at opposite corners, a square and a round one. The walls are pierced by

gun loops An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions ( merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed ou ...

, while there are bartizans at the corners. Parts of a

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

and of a

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

wall remain; they have been incorporated in a rebuilt wall. The castle entrance is in the re-entrant angle. There is a

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

basement, which contained a guardroom. A turnpike stair ascends from the basement of the square tower, but there were also stairs from the

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...

and the

wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. ...

to the

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

on the first floor. The round tower has a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

-vaulted cellar. The hall, which was a fine chamber, had stone seats and a large

fireplace A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design. ...

. Turnpike stairs in the thickness of the walls led to private chambers above and in the towers. There is a small wallhead walkway. *

Castles in Great Britain and Ireland Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 10 ...

List of castles in Scotland This is a list of castles in Scotland. A castle is a type of fortified structure built primarily during the Middle Ages. Scholars debate the scope of the word "castle", but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord o ...

References

Castles in Aberdeenshire