Whitefield Castle, Perth And Kinross
Photo © Linda, 8 August 2005
Whitefield Castle, Perth And Kinross
Photo © Linda, 8 August
2005
Around 1060, King Malcolm III "Canmore", who killed Macbeth in 1057, built Whitefield Castle in Strathardle as a hunting lodge. Over 500 years later, in 1576, Colonel David Spalding led members of his clan to fight in Flanders for the King of Spain. After 7 years, with the resulting plunder, he built Ashintully Castle, 1 km to the southeast of Whitefield Castle, which served as a model. Ashintully Castle in Strathadle and Glenshee has a tunnel linking it to its predecessor, Whitefield Castle.
--ASHINTULLY CASTLE AND WHITEFIELD CASTLE, PERTHSHIRE.
These two castles are situated about two miles apart, in Strathardle, in the parish of Kirkmichael. The first mentioned is still inhabited, and has been largely added to; the latter is in a state of complete ruin. We group them together because they are almost identical in arrangement and size.f They are examples of the L Plan, with the wing projecting over both sides of the main building. The dimensions of the main block at Ashintully are 37 feet 6 inches by 22 feet, and of the tower or wing 17 feet 2 inches by 16 feet 5 inches.
The corresponding dimensions at Whitefield are 36 feet 11 inches by 23 feet 10 inches, and 19 feet 3 inches by 17 feet 8 inches. The ground floors have been vaulted, but in the Ashintully kitchen the vault is removed. The positions of the respective entrance doors, passages, kitchens, and cellars are very much alike, as is also the arrangement of the stairs. The main stair terminates at the first floor, and the ascent is continued in a wheel-stair situated in both castles in very much the same position at the angle adjoining the wing. At Ashintully it is continued within the walls, and at Whitefield it projects on a corbel, as shown by dotted lines on Plan. At Whitefield there is a recess behind the door, which appears to have been constructed to hold the end of a block of wood, to be placed behind one of the back bars of the entrance door to prevent its being pushed open from the outside. This castle also contains a rudely constructed private stair in the north end wall, communicating between the cellar and the hall. The kitchen, which is lighted with mere slits, contains an arched fireplace, and has ;i stone b;isiii and drain. Some of these details at Ashintully have been removed.
At Whitefield there are two projecting corbels in the wing. They are somewhat peculiar as they project 12 inches, and measure 11 in rhesaiid S inches on the face respectively. On the inner side of the larger there is a sinking for an iron plate measuring 24 inches long by 3J inches by J inch, and on the centre, within the face of the wall, there is a stanchion hole. Between the corbels the wall recedes in the manner so often seen in garde-robes, and this may be the remains of one. The corbels are also suggestive of having been used for a hoarding; but we. cannot explain the meaning of the iron plate. The mouldings of the doorways and windows at both places are alike. There is a moulding enclosing the circular-headed panel over the doorway, on the apex of which there is a carved terminal. Ashintully bears the date 1583, carved on its door lintel, and above, in an enriched panel, are carved the impaled arms of Andro Spalding and his wife, and the initials of the former. The lady was a member of the Wemyss family, as shown by the four lions on the shield. Her initials, which are very much wasted, appear to have been A. W.
In connection with this alliance, the following note from Sir William Frazer's history of the family is interesting. On 20th September 1571 there is a precept, dated from Elcothe by John Weinys, charging Andro Spadyne for the lands of Achyndullie and various others to meet him on 1st October next "boidden in feir of Weir" at Leith to wait the king's service. The Earl of Wemyss claimed the right to the patronage of the parish of Kirkmichael, which was unsuccessfully disputed in 1666 by Spalding of Ashintullie.
On the top of the wall over the doorway there is a bartizan projected on corbels. This appears to be of more modern construction than the castle, but it may be a reconstruction of some older defence. The north-west end of the castle remains comparatively unchanged. It is extremely simple, having crow-steps on the gables, and small windows.
Two years after its erection viz., in 1585 Ashintully was besieged by a lawless band of about thirty country gentlemen, who took Andro Spalding prisoner and maltreated him. In 1677 Andro Spalding got a charter under the Great Seal, by which the lands were erected into the barony and free forest of Ashintully and Kirktown, with the privilege of two yearly fairs and one weekly market, Ashintully being declared the burgh of said barony, The barony consisted of the third part of Strathardle, with fortalices, manor place, &c. Ashintully remained in the possession of the Spaldings till 1750, when it was acquired by the Rutherfords, now represented by Mrs. Rutherford Lindsay. The lands of Moot-Cloich, called Whitefield, with the glen of Correyraik, seem to have been feued off to a cadet of the Spalding family at an early date. The carved date at Whitefield Castle is almost effaced, but it is of the same century as Ashintully. The castle was roofed and entire until the beginning of this century, when the slates were taken off and the walls broken down for materials to build a shepherd's house.
THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND BY DAVID MACGIBBON AND THOMAS ROSS, 1889--