Description
1628 with 1748 additions and mid-19th century internal modifications (see Notes.) L-plan tower house with 5-storey round tower in re-entrant angle, crenellated angle turrets and surrounded by star-shaped crenellated military curtain wall. Prominently situated on raised mound on south side of River Dee. Harled granite.Variety of fenestration. Some windows retain 17th century iron grilles. Mixture of timber sash and case, and casement windows, some with 12 panes and some with 4-pane below and 12 pane above. Broad stacks rising from gables.
Interior: maintains largely extant floor plan of 18th century garrison on lower floors and nineteenth century home on the upper floors with many original features. Yett gate at main door. Stone turnpike stair with timber panelling. Well-detailed, decorative cornicing; classical chimneypieces in larger public rooms. Timber 3-panel doors. Simple tiled chimneypieces in upper rooms. Vaulted rooms in basement, one with grill entrance to pit prison below.
Ancillary structures: round rustic timber summerhouse with conical thatched roof to west of castle. To north, single storey timber cottages with predominantly timber sash and case windows.
Statement of Interest
The castle holds a prominent position on Deeside, both visually and historically. Although changed since its inception, it retains original elements from all the periods when it was extended or reconstructed. Built for the 7th Earl of Mar as a hunting lodge, it was attacked by the John Farquharson of Inverey in 1689 when it was extensively damaged by fire. From 1748-97 it became a government barracks, when John Adam, in his post as Master Mason to the Board of Ordnance in Scotland, helped with the reconstruction. At this time, the original conical roofed turrets were heightened and given crenellations, and the curtain wall was established. It was then restored in the mid nineteenth century to become a family home for the Farquharsons. Recently a museum (until 2005) Curtain wall de-scheduled in 1996.
The summerhouse is among a relatively small number buildings with a thatched roof found across Scotland. A Survey of Thatched Buildings in Scotland, published in 2016 by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), found there were only around 200 buildings with thatched roofs.
Listed building record revised in 2021 as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review.
External Links
External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.
Recommended Books
Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990