Castle Grant stands a mile north of Grantown-on-Spey and was the former seat of the

Clan Grant Clan Grant is a Highland Scottish clan. History Origins One theory is that the ancestors of the chiefs of Clan Grant came to Scotland with the Normans to England where the name is found soon after the conquest of that country, although some ...

chiefs of Strathspey in Highlands,

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 ...

.Coventry, Martin. (2008). ''Castles of the Clans: The Strongholds and Seats of 750 Scottish Families and Clans''. pp. 241 - 243. . It was originally named Freuchie Castle but was renamed Grant in 1694. The castle is a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

and the grounds are included in the

Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a cont ...

History

15th-16th centuries

The castle is a Z-plan tower house that dates from the fifteenth century. The lands had been held by the

Clan Comyn Clan Cumming ( gd, Na Cuimeinich ), also known as Clan Comyn, is a Scottish clan from the central Highlands that played a major role in the history of 13th-century Scotland and in the Wars of Scottish Independence. The Clan Comyn was once the m ...

but passed to the Grants in the fifteenth century and it became their main stronghold. The castle was originally named Freuchie Castle and James Grant of Freuchie supported

James V of Scotland James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, and du ...

17th-18th centuries

The sixth laird, John Grant, made some improvements to the building. The castle was decorated with stone heraldic beasts and animals carved by Ralph Rawlinson. The

long gallery In architecture, a long gallery is a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In Britain, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were normally placed on the highest reception floor of English country hous ...

and the heads of the dormer windows were painted and gilded by John Anderson of Aberdeen. Although the Grants were Protestants, they joined

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 and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three ...

during the Scottish Civil War in the 1640s. The name of the castle changed from Freuchie Castle to Castle Grant in 1694 when the lands were made into the regality of Grant. Ludovick Grant, the eighth laird, supported the Hanoverians against the Stewarts and fought against the Jacobites in both the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, ...

and the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took ...

. However Castle Grant was occupied by the Jacobites. In 1787,

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

visited Castle Grant.

Modern history

The castle was restored by Sir

Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, for new work in Scots Baronial and Got ...

in 1912. It later became derelict, but was restored in the 1990s. The property was purchased for £720,000 by businessman

Craig Whyte Craig Thomas Whyte (born 18 January 1971) is a Scottish businessman best known for his controversial spell as owner of Scottish football club Rangers. Whyte first entered business in a plant hire company, after which he moved into security, ma ...

in 2006. Castle Grant was seized by the

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...

after Whyte, who had led Rangers F.C. into its administration and liquidation in 2012, refused to make mortgage payments. It was sold in September 2014 to ex-CEO of the Russian Author Society, Sergey Fedotov, who was later arrested for fraud.

Ghost

Castle Grant is allegedly haunted by the ghost of Lady Barbara Grant, daughter of a sixteenth century laird. However her small apparition is said to be sad rather than terrifying. She is said to have died of a broken heart after being imprisoned in a dark closet for falling in love with the wrong man.

References

External links

profile
at www.clangrant-us.org
http://www.strathspey-estate.co.uk/http://www.grantownmuseum.co.uk/https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1632630/highland-castle-owner-arrested-over-an-alleged-multi-million-pound-fraud/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Castle Castles in Highland (council area) Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Category A listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed castles in Scotland Reportedly haunted locations in Scotland

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Tower houses in Scotland