Towie Castle was a 17th-century
tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...
, about south-west
Kildrummy
Kildrummy ( gd, Cionn Droma) is a hamlet in Aberdeenshire, Scotland near the River Don, west of Alford. The hamlet's primary school closed in 2003.
Its church was built in 1805. Nearby Kildrummy Castle has a long history dating back to at lea ...
,
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 the river
Don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
.
[Coventry, Martin (1997) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p.319]
History
The property belonged to
Clan Forbes
Clan Forbes is a Highland Scottish clan from Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
History
Origins
The name Forbes is most probably a location name assumed from the lands of Forbes in Aberdeenshire, in possession of this family reputedly since the time ...
. There may have been an earlier castle.
Towie Castle may have been the castle burnt by
Adam Gordon of Auchindoun
Adam Gordon of Auchindoun (1545–1580) was a Scottish knight, younger brother of the Earl of Huntly and military leader during the Marian civil war on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots in north west Scotland. In Scottish ballad lore, Adam became k ...
, resulting in the deaths of Lady Forbes, her children, and numerous others, and giving rise to the ballad
Edom o Gordon
Edom o Gordon or Captain Car (Child #178, Roud #80) is a traditional Scottish ballad that exists in several versions. The ballad recounts the gruesome events of Gordon's (or, in some versions, Car's) burning down of his enemy's castle that killed t ...
, although this is often related to
Corgarff Castle
Corgarff Castle is located slightly west of the village of Corgarff, in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland. It stands by the Lecht road, which crosses the pass between Strathdon and Tomintoul.
Life
The castle was built around 1530 by the Elp ...
.
[
The castle was built after 1618; and is thought to have been unfinished. It is said that the tunnels and battlements were said removed in 1788, and the building altered.][
Ruins of the castle were removed in 1968,][ with the last remains being removed by ]Grampian Regional Council
Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...
in the 1980s.[
]
Structure
Towie Castle was an L-plan
An L-plan castle is a castle or tower house in the shape of an L, typically built from the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, and other location ...
tower house, three storeys high; there were corbelled-out bartizans
A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from the ...
[
Towie Castle was originally an oblong main building; the western end cellar and a tower projecting from the east end of the south front alone survived to at least 1942. The masonry of the tower is regarded as typical of the 16th or 17th century.][
]
See also
*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 or ...
References
{{coord , 57.2036, N, 2.9270, W, display=title
Castles in Aberdeenshire