Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016439

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016439

This is a massive Norman castle earthwork, the 'capital messuage' of Strathdon, one of the feudal lordships of the province of Mar. Carved out of a glacial mound, the motte is oval in plan and measures an enormous 76m by 36.6m and 18.3m in height. It is surrounded by a ditch and bank. Only two other Norman earthworks are of comparable Size, the lVlotte of Urr In Kirkcudbrightshire and Duffus castle in Moray (no. 32).

The scale (1.8m thick) and mortaring of the curtain wall around the summit suggest that it is a genuine military work rather than a late dyke as at Lumphanan (no. 33). The oblong building whose foundations stretch right across the summit may have been a chapel, in view of the rare carved piscina or stoup fragment found close by; this building may have served as the parish church of Invernochty until later medieval times. The square foundations near the entrance on the sourh side of the summit may have been a tower.

The motte is surrounded by a broad ditch which could be flooded from a lake immediately to the west, whose eastern retaining bank can still be seen running through the trees. This, and the sluices that controlled the water at the north-west and east of the counter-scarp, represent an important and rare example of early military engineering.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).