Blervie Castle, Moray
Photo © Anne Burgess, 8 May 2008
Blervie Castle, Moray
Photo © Anne
Burgess, 8 May 2008
Blervie Castle had a commanding position, on top of a ridge with excellent views in all directions. The tower is the remnant of the 16th century castle, property of the Dunbars. It is very similar to nearby Burgie Castle.
-- BLERVIE CASTLE, ELGINSHIRE.
This castle is situated about four miles south from Forres, and not far from Burgie Castle, to which it bears some resemblance.
The plan, like that of Burgie, seems to have been of the Z form, but, as at the latter, only one of the angle towers, with a fragment of the main block, remains. The main building contained the hall, while the tower contained a bedroom on each floor, and was carried higher than the central block, and crowned with a parapet for defence. The main house has been removed all but the wall next the tower, which contains the fireplace of the hall. The tower, which no doubt formerly stood at the angle diagonally opposite that still existing, has also entirely disappeared. The circular angle turret for the staircase is corbelled out in the inner angle as at Burgie, and gives access to all the rooms in and to the platform on the top of the tower. The battlement had the usual angle bartizans, but was less ornamental than that of Burgie, and the parapet is gone.
Blervie Castle, Moray
Photo © Anne Burgess, 28
April 1984
Blervie stands on the top of a hill, and commands the pass through which the Highland Railway runs to Grantowii. The site seems to have been occupied as a fortress from early times. In the Exchequer Rolls (vol. i. p. xlvi) we find an account by Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, for repairing and garrisoning the royal castle of Blervie or Ulerin in anticipation of Haco's invasion.
Blervie afterwards passed into the hands of the Dunbars, by whom the existing building was probably erected in the sixteenth century. --