Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016870
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016870
Aberdour Castle presents a complex of buildings and gardens representing four distinct building periods dating from about the 13th century to the 17th century. This complex has been constructed on the site of an earlier castle which formed the capital messuage of the Barony of Aberdour granted by Robert Bruce to his nephew, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, about 1325. The Morays granted a charter of the barony to William Douglas, Knight, in 1342 and the property has remained in the possession of successive branches of the Douglas family ever since. In 1386 the baronies of Aberdour and Dalkeith were united into a single barony of regality known as the Regality of Dalkeith, an arrangement which lasted until 1642.
The site of the castle was originally one of considerable strength but this has been diminished at various times. The construction of the garden terraces to the south of the castle in the 17th century and the construction of the railway embankment on the north side in the 19th century were the two most influential factors in changing the site. Various other alterations have taken place over the years to make the building more domestic in character, particularly the reduction of the inner courtyard wall to its foundations. When viewed as a whole the castle expresses this long process of alteration and expansion.
The oldest part of the castle is the tower which forms the west range of the present layout. The plan-form of this tower is a parallelogram measuring approximately 16m by 11m overall. The walls are finished with flat clasped buttresses at the north and east corners. The foundation is stepped except for part of the south-east wall which is built on a splayed base course. The walls are 1.8m thick. These remains and some internal fragments suggest that this formed an exceptionally early free-standing tower-house. The angle buttresses, splayed base course and cubical masonry are characteristric of 12th century structures and the double lancet window at fIrst-floor level is typical of 13th century work.
Rebuilding of the upper part of the tower probably took place in the 15th century. The accommodation provided in the reconstructed tower, although adequate when built, was less than adequate for the requirements of a 16th century laird's household and a new range was added to the south-east This forms the central range of the present layout and is roughly rectangular on plan with a projecting stair at the south corner. The new building is linked to the old by a stair which serves them both at all principal levels. Internally the accommodation comprises two rooms per floor connected by a passage along the north side.
On the ground floor the vaulted kitchen contains a large arched fIreplace into which an oven was inserted in 1674. East and west of the castle are courtyards which were added in the 16th century but which may reflect an earlier layout repeated on a larger scale. In the west courtyard is a range of outbuildings built against the courtyard walL including a brewery and bakehouse with two large ovens. The east courtyard contains a well house which may also have served as a laundry.
The existing east range was added to the north-east of the 16th century building by Earl William Morton who succeeded to the title in 1606 and died in 1648. This extension is L-shaped on plan with a projecting wing at the south corner and the principal stair in the re-entrant angle. One of the two small towers projecting from the north front is original, the other an early addition. The whole of the first floor of this range formed a picture gallery and it is possible that the ceilings were painted in tempera, as was popular in Scotland in the early 17th century. Certainly the entresol has such a ceiling. The walls were panelled in timber.
The gardens are situated to the east and south of the castle. The east walled garden encloses half a hectare within walls 3.7m high in characteristic 17th century style, with enriched pediments on the two gateways, one with the Douglas heart and the other with the date 1632 and the monogram ofWilliam, Earl of Morton and his wife Countess Anne. The courtyard gate was inserted in 1740. The garden also contained a summer house and bridge to the kitchen garden but only slight evidence of these features survives.
To the south of the castle are two terraces, all that remain of the four terraces existing in 1745. Beyond them is a large beehive-shaped dovecote containing about 600 nests and the remains of a potence. Beyond the dovecote was the orchard or 'wilderness' situated on land that was drained and laid out in 1690.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
