Blairfindy castle

Blairfindy Castle, Moray
Photo © Richard Doake, 6 March 2006

--BLAIRFINDY CASTLE, BANFFSHIRE.

This castle, which was a hunting-seat of the Earls of Huntly, stands on high ground above the steep banks of the river Livet, and about seven miles southwards from the station of Ballindalloch.

It is built on the L plan, with the wing slightly projected, so as to command the main building on two sides.

The other sides are defended with round turrets corbelled out on the angles. The entrance doorway is in the re-entering angle of the wing, and is defended from a squint hole in the wall. A passage leads to the kitchen, with its usual large fireplace, oven, and water drain, and to the cellar, which has the ordinary private stair from the hall in the thickness of the wall. The kitchen and cellar are vaulted. The principal staircase, which is wide, occupies the wing. It starts near the entrance doorway, and ascends to the first floor only, the access to the upper floors being by a newel staircase corbelled out iri the re-entering angle of the wing. The hall as usual occupies the whole of the first floor. The two upper floors are now inaccessible, but they no doubt contained the usual accommodation.

The view shows the entrance doorway and the shield above it, on an enlarged scale, containing the Gordon initials and the date 1586. Above the entrance, near the roof, a remarkable feature is observable in the boldly corbelled and machicolated parapet or turret, which has evidently been erected in this situation for the defence of the doorway.

Glenlivet occupies an important position among the passes leading from Banffshire into Aberdeenshire, and this castle was probably erected to strengthen and defend the pass.

The site of the battle of Glenlivet is not far distant, in which Argyll, commanding the Protestant army, was defeated by Huntly and the insurgent Catholics in 1594.

THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND BY DAVID MACGIBBON AND THOMAS ROSS, 1889--