Pittulie Castle


Pittulie Castle, Aberdeenshire
Photo © J. Thomas, 4 May 2009

The Nine Castles of Knuckle

Pittulie Castle is one of the Nine Castles of Knuckle. A group of ancient castles found in the extinct area of "Knuckle", which today would be located on the very far corner of the north-east coast of Aberdeenshire in the Buchan area of Scotland.

Pittulie Castle, sometimes spelt Pittullie Castle, consists of an oblong block with a square tower in the NW corner. It was probably built about the beginning of the 17th century (some time before 1650). A skew-stone from the east gable of the main building is dated 1651.

PITTULLIE CASTLE, ABKRDEENSHIRE.

A ruinous mansion situated about three or four miles west from Fraserburgh, and about half a mile from Pitsligo Castle. It consists of an oblong block with a square tower at the north-west corner. The main portion of the structure is a low building with round angle turrets, the corbelling of which commences at a height of about 12 feet from the ground. The angle windows in the tower are quaint and peculiar. We do not remember any others of precisely the same design; but they recall the form of the angle turrets when they were overcome by the increasing gables and depressed below the eaves of the roof. These angle windows light the apartment formerly known as " the laird's room."

The dates 1651, 1674, and 1727 are to be found on various parts of the building; that of 1651 shown in the Sketch is from the skew-stone of the east gable of the main building, and is the only date we observed.

The lands of Pittullie were held in the fourteenth century by the Frasers, under the Douglases, Lords of Abercorn and Aberdour, for services. In 1595-6, by a contract of marriage between Alexander Fraser, junior, and Mistress Margaret Abernethy of Saltoun, Alexander Fraser of Fraserburgh binds himself to infest his son and Mistress Margaret on the lands of Nether and Over "Pettulies." Probably it was in connection with this marriage that the house was built. The arms of the Frasers of Saltoun were visible on the castle when Pratt wrote about twenty years ago. The place ultimately passed into the hands of the Cumines, and was by them enlarged and inhabited down to about 1850. It is now fast becoming a shapeless ruin.

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