Craigievar Castle

Even though it was officially after five and we were fairly certain that there wouldn't be any castles open, we continued on, still enjoying the scenery and the beautiful castles from the outside.  If we had more time in Scotland, we would have been able to visit the castles again and take the tours and really get the full account of everything, but as it was, time was limited, and returning to Scotland is on my bucket list, so I drank in everything we could see while there.

History:

Resembling a fairytale castle and an example of the best of Scottish Baronial architecture, Craigievar fits naturally amongst the rolling hills of Aberdeenshire.

Scotland has many castles, but there is something truly unique about Craigievar. It is widely recognised as one of the best preserved and most authentic tower houses in Scotland. This recognition started early. In 1824 Sir John Forbes, who had inherited the castle the previous year on the death of his older brother, commissioned Aberdeen architect John Smith to report on the condition of Craigievar. His report highlighted the need for a new roof and new harling, but noted that the castle was "well worth being preserved as it is one of the finest specimens of architecture in this Country of the age and stile in which it is built, and finely situated."
Sir John paid for a new roof, and had the castle completely reharled. Until then the exterior finish of the castle had been a cream colour. Sir John agreed with John Smith's recommendation that the harling should have pigments added to make it more closely match the colour of the granite detailing, and the result was a distinctly pink colour. Meanwhile as little "improvement" as possible was undertaken within the castle, and as much of the original panelling and furniture as possible was retained. As a result Craigievar Castle became a very early example of a tourist attraction, and people started to journey from increasingly far afield in order to visit.

One visitor who didn't need to travel far was Queen Victoria, whose own castle at Balmoral was only just over 20 miles away as the crow flies. The royal visitor turned up unannounced on the afternoon of 18 June 1879 and, according to Victoria's journal, on finding no one at home, she simply wandered around this "strange and curious old castle" until the residents were alerted to her presence and returned to greet her.

By this time the Forbes were maintaining Craigievar Castle as a holiday home and tourist attraction, while running a main family home at Fintray House, at Hatton of Fintray on the River Don north of Aberdeen.  This allowed them to strictly limit the concessions made to the modern world at Craigievar, which in turn helped preserve it for future generations. In 1884 Sir William Forbes inherited the title of 17th Lord Sempill, marking the start of what has become known as the Forbes-Sempill family. Fintray House was requisitioned for the war effort in 1941 and the family moved permanently to the much smaller Craigievar. After the war the problems of, in effect, living within a museum became increasingly obvious, and the family opened discussions with the National Trust for Scotland in 1962, which led to the NTS taking over the castle and opening it more fully to the public.
Major repair and refurbishment followed in 1973. This included replacement of the traditional lime harling outer coat with a more modern and, it was thought, better performing and more durable concrete based coating. By the early years of the current century it had become clear that this coating was preventing the castle's structure from breathing, and it was becoming increasingly damp as a result. At the same time the intimate scale and intrinsically fragile nature of elements such as the ceilings meant that the interior of the castle was not standing up well to the large numbers of visitors drawn here.

What followed can be seen in some of the exterior images on this page. After exploratory work in 2006, the castle was closed between October 2007 and April 2010 to allow extensive interior and exterior renovation to take place. Externally this involved completely removing the concrete coating which had been applied in 1973. Stone details covered for the first time in 1973 and largely obscured as a result were uncovered, while the rest of the structure was given a coat of authentic lime harling complete with pigments intended to match the finish that first emerged in 1824. The castle which emerged from under its swathe of scaffolding in 2010 is stunningly beautiful and decidedly pink: the main visual difference being the newly exposed stone corbelling and decorative detail.
Internally the work was every bit as intensive, but less obvious. In order to avoid the sheer volume of visitors causing damage as happened in the past, visits have been by guided tour only since the castle reopened, and group size has been strictly limited.

Today's visitor finds an interior that probably looks very much as it did when the castle was visited by Victoria and Albert in 1879. There is no electricity in the castle above the ground floor, so you really get a sense of how dark the rooms would have been (and that is before you begin to imagine what they would be like in the depths of a Scottish winter). One of the things that sets Craigievar apart is how modestly sized many of the rooms are. This really is a castle built on a domestic scale. Even the Hall, by some margin the largest room on the lower floors of the castle, is diminutive by the standards of most castle halls. On the other hand, Craigievar's hall is unique in Scotland in being entered through its original screened off passage, and the original Jacobean carved woodwork is exceptionally rare.

Another of the glories of Craigievar Castle are the amazing moulded plaster ceilings. These date back to 1624 and were some of the first in Scotland: until then it had been traditional simply to paint the structure of the wooden beams and flooring above, as can be seen at Crathes Castle 14 miles to the south east. The first plaster ceilings in Scotland were introduced in Edinburgh in 1617: and a single team of plasterers then worked at Kellie Castle in 1617 and Glamis Castle in 1620 before moving on to Craigievar.

Alex photo-bombing this time

The "strange and curious old castle" found by Queen Victoria has its origins with the Mortimers of Craigievar, who had owned the estate since the late 1300s. Some time between 1575 and 1595 they built a traditional L-plan tower house at Craigievar, little different from others being built in the area, and, indeed, across Scotland, at the time. The original castle had a walled courtyard to its south and west, featuring ranges of additional buildings within a defensive wall.
In 1610 the estate and its castle was purchased by William Forbes of Menie. He was a younger son who had made his fortune (and become popularly known as Danzig Willie) as a merchant trading between Aberdeen and the Baltic states. It was William Forbes who created the Craigievar Castle we see today. He appears to have cleared the existing structure down to the level of the top of the fourth floor. He then corbelled out the whole building at that level, allowing the construction of two additional floors with an area larger than those of the floors below.

But it isn't the amount of extra accommodation which makes Craigievar Castle so special, it is the sheer panache with which the upper floors were embellished with multiple turrets, towers, dormer windows and viewing platforms. Look at it today and it is difficult to believe that that the upper floors are a later addition, and the result has a fairy tale quality that long predates fairy tales. You get the sense that William Forbes, and his wife Margaret Woodward, daughter of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, thoroughly enjoyed designing their new home and got a lot of pleasure from seeing their dreams turned into stone. The result is a castle that inspires a sense of playfulness: and is as far away from some of the martial and forbidding castles found elsewhere in Scotland as it is possible to imagine.

At Craigievar the cannons that project from the structure are disguised water spouts, and while there are gun loops in many of the corner turrets, you again get the sense they are there for decorative rather than practical reasons. Later generations of the Forbes family made minor improvements to their castle, and the additional ranges of buildings to the west and south were partly removed in the 1790s, with the remainder disappearing as part of Sir John Forbes' renovations in the 1820s. All that was left was the length of heavily buttressed wall that you find today, terminating in what was originally a corner turret, which now stands with a decided lean to one side.

 The view:

Crathes Castle and Gardens

Crathes Castle and Gardens is another castle which has it's last tour ending at 4:00, so once again we just explored the outer rim of the castle.  The gardens, from what we could see were beautiful, and had we the time it would have been nice to come back and taken our time with this castle. 

The history of Crathes Castle dates to the early years of the 14th century. Robert the Bruce spent time hunting in the area after he defeated the Comyn faction at the Battle of Inverurie in 1308. Bruce enjoyed his hunting so much that he created a royal forest here, and named his supporter, Alexander Burnett, as the first royal forester of Drum. The estates around Banchory remained in the hands of the Burnett family for over 350 years.
Horn of Leys
Bruce solemnised the appointment of Burnett as forester by giving him The Horn of Leys, a carved ivory horn ornamented with precious stones. The Horn of Leys hangs over a fireplace in the castle to this day, and the Burnett family crest depicts a hunting horn.
For the first 250 years of their tenure the Burnetts lived on a small crannog in Loch of Leys, in rather rudimentary accommodation. But the family fortunes rose when in 1543 Alexander Burnett married Janet Hamilton, the illegitimate daughter of a canon of St Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen. Janet's dowry enabled the couple to leave the Loch of Leys and build a grand new home at Crathes.
The castle took 40 years to build, and was finally completed by Alexander's great-grandson, another Alexander, who added the turreted top floor and the fabulous painted ceilings that decorate the interiors of the castle. Perhaps the most famous Burnett of Crathes was Thomas (1619-1653), who served James VI and I, and was made Baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I. You can see the original deed granting the baronetcy hanging on a wall inside the castle.
The 3rd laird, Sir Thomas Burnett (1658-1714), planted the yew trees which now form the basis of the famous gardens at Crathes. He also fathered 21 children, which might explain why he added a new wing to the tower house!
Gardens
The gardens as we see them today are largely the work of General Sir James Burnett (1880-1953) and his wife Sybil. They created a compartmented garden of exceptional beauty, with pools, fountains, roses, and themed borders. There really is something for everyone in the Crathes Castle gardens, from formal beds to cascades of colour, plus the ancient clipped yews and topiary. Perhaps the best place to view the work done by General Sir James and Sybil Burnett is not within the gardens at all, but from the windows at the top of the castle tower, which look down on the walled garden. So highly regarded are the gardens at Crathes that many people come just to see them alone, without visiting the castle itself.
In 1951 the castle and garden were gifted to the National Trust for Scotland.

Me

Drum Castle

Our next stop was Drum Castle.  Unfortunately, we had arrived after the last tour had left--everything seems to close around five pm which is very unfortunate because we would have loved to take the tour and there is so much daylight left-- so we didn't actually get to explore the castle.  We also didn't get to see the rose gardens, which I hear are spectacular.  Still, we got to look around the outside of the castle which was fun. 

Here's a little history:

Twenty-four generations of the Irvine family have lived uninterrupted in Drum Castle for more than six and a half centuries. It was perhaps the oldest occupied castle in Scotland till the last Laird of Drum, Henry Quentin Forbes Irvine, bequeathed the house and 300 acres of ground to the National Trust for Scotland on his death in November of 1975.

Eight miles west of Aberdeen, Drum Castle stands at the gates to Royal Deeside on a ridge overlooking the River Dee. As you walk around the remarkably well preserved castle you can recognize three distinct styles of construction. The original medieval tower, one of the three oldest towers in Scotland and only one to remain largely intact was built in the thirteenth century, the rambling stone Jacobean mansion that surrounds the tower was added in 1619 and the Victorian extension, added in 1872. Inside one can view portraits, furniture, vaulted ceilings decorated with shields in the great hall.

William Irvine was awarded the Royal Forest of Oaks in Aberdeenshire and Drum Castle which guards it in 1323 for his service to King Robert. This land had previously belonged to John Comyn and Drum was made into a free barony in 1329. The Irvine remained intensely loyal to the Stuart royalty. Drum Castle was plundered to its stones three times during the Covenanting Rebellion against Charles I.
 
Drum Castle stands on extensive grounds and over the centuries many changes were made to the gardens as well. A giant Wellingtonia towering above the other conifers is evidence of the arboretum created on the South and East Lawns by the Irvine in the early 1900s. In the 1930s a 5-hole golf course was developed around the castle. The exquisite Pond Garden was built by the Trust around a former cattle watering-pool and paths that wind around it to the walled garden.

The Trust opened the Garden of Historic Roses in 1991 to mark its Diamond Jubilee. Divided into four quadrants, each has a design from one of the last four centuries and roses from that period.

Fyvie Castle

Fyvie Castle was by far my favorite castle due to the legends and ghost stories which surround it.  As per usual, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, and they had workers throughout the castle which made sure that you adhered to the rules. 

We got to see the D Lilias Drummond carved into the stone on the windowsill.  It was creepy.  The murder room was also super creepy. 

The castle was actually situated a little ways from the parking lot, so we had a beautiful walk through the woods to get to the castle.

 History:
Fyvie Castle near Turif in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is believed to have been built around the 13th Century by William the Lion. The castle served as a Royal stronghold until 1390, shortly after the Battle of Otterburn. It was then passed down to a succession of clan families. Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon, and Leith respectively. Each of the families constructed a new tower onto the castle, the first of these being the Preston Tower. Dated between 1390-1433, the tower remains to this day. The Seton family added the Seton Towers in 1599, which you can see dominating the entrance to the castle. The great processional staircase was also added by Seton’s some time after. The Gordon Tower was added in 1777, and lastly the Leith Tower in 1890.
There are a number of famous portraits hung in the castle, as well as displays of authentic armour and weapons. The descendants of Alexander Leith, who owned the castle in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s, sold the castle to the National Trust for Scotland in 1984. The castle is now open to the public to admire its architecture, art collection, and family history.

Ghosts:

Grey Lady
Thought to tbe the ghost of Lady Meldrum who died sometime in the 13th Century. It is believed that she requested to be buried in the walls of a secret room in the Meldrum Tower. It wasn’t until 1920 that her remains were discovered. The remains were laid to rest in the cemetery, and from that day forward, the castle has experienced several strange and unexplained occurrences.  The apparition of Lady Meldrum has been seen many times around the castle.

Green Lady

Thought to be Dane Lilias Drummond, the wife of Sir Alexander Seton. After producing 5 children, none of whom male, Alexander grew impatient. Longing for a son his attentions turned towards the cousin of his wife, Grizel Leslie. Heartbroken and betrayed, Lillias retired to their home in Fife, where she became ill and died shortly after. The story goes that on the night Alexander married Grizel, in their bedroom in the castle, they could hear heavy sighs coming from outside their window, believing it to be nothing more than the wind. Upon opening the window in the morning Alexander found the name D LILIAS DRUMMOND, carved into the stone. This name can still be seen to this day!

Her ghost is said to roam the corridors of the castle, bemoaning the betrayal of her husband, and leaving behind a scent of Rose petals in her wake.

Phantom Trumpeter
The sounds of a trumpet being played can be heard throughout the castle. Believed to be the ghost of Andrew Lammie, who died of a broken heart after finding out about the death of his beloved Agnes. Andrew is also said to appear dressed in rich tartan, near the castle wall. On several occasions the figure of a man has been seen, only to disappear when approached.

The Legend of ‘The Weeping Stones of Fyvie’
Upon visiting the castle sometime ago, Thomas the Rhymer also known as True Thomas (because of his future telling abilities), told of a prophecy that goes:

Fyvie, Fyvie, thou’s never thrive As lang’s there’s in thee stanes (stones) three There’s ane intill (one in) the oldest tower, There’s ane intill the ladye’s bower, There’s ane intill the water-yett (water gate) And thir three stanes ye never get.

This message refers to three stones that were used in the construction of the Preston Tower, the Charter Room, and one stone that was rolled into the Ythan River. They were apparently taken from a sacred burial site, and until they are returned, no male heir shall live to ever inherit the castle. The stones are also said to remain wet when all around them are dry, and dry when all around them are wet. One of the stones was found in the Charter room, and can be seen today on display in the castle.
Is the story true? No-one knows, but the fact that a male heir has never survived to inherit Fyvie Castle, could very well mean there is some truth to the legend.

 Selfies!  Since this was my favorite castle, I tried to get a good picture