Findochty Castle

Findochty Castle, Moray
Photo © Anne Burgess, 21 May 1983

Findochty is a village in Banffshire, Scotland, 4 miles east of the town of Buckie.

Findochty (known locally as 'Finechty') stands on the shores of the Moray Firth. The Gaelic name of the village was recorded by Diack in his own transcription method as fanna-guchti which is unclear in meaning. With its painted cottages, a scenic harbour overlooked at the west by the local war memorial, and at the east by the white painted Church of Scotland, Findochty is a jewel of the north east of Scotland.

In 1568 the Ord family acquired the manor, port, custom and fishers' lands of Findochty, and later built the castle, which stands to the west of the village.

There's not much left of the castle, and little more of the adjacent cottage.

FINDOCHTY CASTLE, BANFFSHIRE.

A ruined structure of the L Plan, consisting of a vaulted ground floor with the entrance doorway at the south end, and a staircase in the wing at the north end, entered through the ground floor. This leads to the hall on the first floor, and was apparently continued up to the second floor. Part of the enclosing wall along the low rocky site still exists, and has been used as the back wall of a cottage now in ruins. There are mouldings round the staircase and other windows, but they are much obliterated, having been executed in soft freestone.

The castle stands a short distance north of the Great North of Scotland Railway, about half-way between Findochty and Portessie Stations. It was formerly at the west end of a small loch, which is now drained, and commands a fine view westwards. Little is known of its history.

Reference

The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland by David Macgibbon and Thomas Ross 1889