Publication Account

Date 1986

Event ID 1017229

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017229

RCAHMS: Exploring Scotland's Heritage - Grampian, 1986

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 notte 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 Gordons whose foundations can still be traced. The third, the Palace that rears up 20 m or more, was begun 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. lames IV attended the marriage of the pretender to the English throne, Perkin Warbeck, to Lady Catherine Gordon in 1496 in the third castle. In 1556 the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, visited this, the chief stronghold of the Catholic Gordon 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 is 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. 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. In the upper hall is one of the splendid heraldic mantel pieces inserted by George, first marquis, in the third building period, the first decade of the 17th century. This shows the anns of Huntly and Lennox with the royal anns 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 HVNTLIE) and his wife (HENRIETTE STEV ART MARQVESSE OF HVNTLIE) 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: Grampian’, (1986).