Roy Castle

Castle Roy - Photo ©
Roy Turnbull, 15 December 2006

Castle Roy, or Redcastle, a 13th century fortress, seen from a small car park on the Nethy to Grantown road (B970). The castle is unsafe and there is no public access to it. A notice at the car park informs you that the castle stands on a rocky hummock which has probably been artificially altered to improve the defences. The castle consists of a courtyard measuring 24m by 16m with the remains of a tower in the north angle (furthest from you). The walls are about 2m thick and 6 - 7m high, built from rubble held together with a strong lime mortar. The castle was simply a high wall and tower protecting those within the courtyard who lived in wooden lean-to buildings against the walls.

-- One of the simplest of these thirteenth-century fortresses is Castle Roy (or Redcastle), situated in the Abernethy district of Inverness-shire. It is said to have been a stronghold of the Comyns, but nothing authentic is known of its history. Situated about one mile north-east from Broomhill Station of the Highland Railway, it stands on a rising ground, somewhat elevated above the general valley of the Spey. It consists of the usual high enclosing wall, which in this case crowns a rocky site, raised from 10 to 15 feet above the level of the surrounding fields. The nature of the site has probably rendered a ditch unnecessary, as there is no appearance of there ever having been one. The walls are 7 feet thick, built with strong rubble-work, and are still from 20 to 25 feet high. The enclosed space measures 80 feet from north to south, by 53 feet from east to west within the walls. The entrance is by a doorway, 8 feet wide, in the north wall, the inner pointed arch of which still remains. There is a square tower at the north-west angle, and the remains of a large window near it, which has also a pointed arch in the reveal; but it seems doubtful whether these are not later additions. The north-east angle of the enclosure is complete, without any appearance of a tower having ever existed there. At the south-east angle the wall is broken away, as if for the purpose of adding a tower similar to that at the north-west angle, but apparently no tower has ever been built there. The recess in the wall at the south-west angle, which is on the ground-level, seems to have been used as latrines. There is a projecting garderobe over this in the upper part of the wall, but no appearance of any tower at this angle either. The building seems to have been simply a large enclosing wall of great height, and no doubt well defended from the parapet, for the purpose of sheltering the vassals and their property. There were probably wooden or other buildings within the enclosure with roofs supported against the curtains, but no trace of these now exists. --

The Castellated And Domestic Architecture Of Scotland, 1887