Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016431
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016431
Three castles have guarded the crossing of the Deveron at its confluence with the Bogie. The first, the Peel of Strathbogie, was an earth and timber motte and bailey castle built in the late 12th century; the motte can still be seen. The second, built c 1400 on the bailey of the first castle, was a strong L-plan stone tower of the Cordons whose foundations can still be traced. The third, the Palace that rears up 20m or more, was begun possibly in the mid 15th century, remodelled in the 1550s and adorned with oriels and armorials in the early 17th century.
Huntly features prominently in Scottish history. Sir Robert Bruce rested in the motte in 1307. James IV attended the marriage of the pretender to the English throne, Perkin Warbeck, to Lady Catherine Cordon in 1496 in the second castle. In 1556 the Queen Regent, Mary of Cuise, visited this, the chief stronghold of the Catholic Cordon earls of Huntly that by 1562 was to become the headquarters of the counter reformation in Scotland. In that year, after the earl of Huntly's defeat at Corrichie, at the hands of Mary Queen of Scots, the castle was pillaged, the contents including the treasures of St Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen. In the troubles of the 17th century the castle was occupied by the Covenanters (in 1640) and in 1647 the 'Irish' garrison was hanged, their officers beheaded, the marquis of Huntly captured and his escort shot against the walls.
The Palace is best preserved. It may be of three periods, the earliest, dating to the mid 15th century, is represented by three basement vaults and a dark pit-prison cut into the foundations. Early graffiti survive on the plaster of the corridor. In the middle of the 16th century the fourth earl rebuilt this castle from the ground floor up. On the first floor is the earl's apartment, the traditional arrangement of hall, great chamber and inner chamber with bed recess and privy, a sequence indicating increasing degrees of privacy. The imagination must supply the wall hangings, window glass, plastered walls and painted ceilings (with 'figures and mottoes') with which these apartments would have been furnished.
The arrangement of the floor above, for the earl's wife, would have been similar, with access between floors in the great circular tower by means of a private stair. In the upper hall is one of the splendid heraldic mantelpieces inserted by George, first marquis, in the third building period, the first decade of the 17th century. This shows the arms of Huntly and Lennox with the royal arms above, and between obelisks bearing Seton crescents and Lennox fleurs de lis. The topmost panel was removed by the Covenanter, Capt James Wallace as it was of a sacred subject.
At the top of the round tower, 20m up, a 'belvedere' or turrret room gave wide, dizzying views. The first marquis also added the impressive heraldic frontispiece over the main doorway, to one Lord Lyon 'probably the most splendid heraldic doorway in the British Isles'. (It is fully explained in the site guidebook.) The gracious oriel windows on the south front were probably inspired by Huntly's visit to Blois in France in 1594. With the frieze of giant relief letters commemorating himself (GEORGE GORDOVN FIRST MARQVIS OF HVNTLlE) and his wife (HENRIETTE STEVART MARQVESSE OF HVNTLlE) in 1602, they complete one of the most sophisticated buildings of its day. From the depths of its hopeless pit to the airy sweetness of its oriels it was always a statement of Gordon power.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).
