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Standing Building Recording

Date 29 June 2009 - 1 July 2009

Event ID 605056

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/605056

NJ 792 257 Alterations to the fabric of Barra Castle were recorded 29 June–1 July 2009. The castle has a complex history of building, reconstruction and modification. Early 17th-century date stones, with the monograms of the Seton family, mark the first securely dated part of the castle, although this is thought to represent the upgrading of an existing structure or structures.

As it stands today, Barra Castle comprises a U-shaped plan, consisting of three wings of three or four storeys each, open to the E. The N wing is thought to be an 18th-century addition, perhaps replacing an earlier range. The S wing is the highest part of the castle, possibly incorporating an early tower at its E end, although transformed by the addition of a newel stair which connects it to the W range. The W range may incorporate an earlier structure at ground floor level, although recent analysis suggests that much of it may be of early 17th-century date. The architectural details of the N and S ends of this range differ significantly on all three floors and this could be due to the rebuilding of much of the N end. This is perhaps best indicated by the stump of a round tower which survives to ground floor level in the NW corner of the range, while towers at the SW corner and two others in the S elevation run the height of the building.

In the second half of the 15th century the lands of Barra are recorded as being held by a Blackhall, known as ‘the Goodman’, who was a hereditary ‘Forester and Coroner of the Garioch’. In the 16th century the lands were held by the Blackhalls and the King family. The King family lost Barra as a result of a feud with their neighbours, the Setons of Meldrum. In 1590 James King of Barra and others attacked and killed James Seton of Meldrum ‘with schottis of hagbuttis and muscattis, committed upon the landis of Barra’. The feud resulted in the Kings and the Blackhalls forfeiting their rights to the lands and in 1599 George Seton was granted both

halves of Barra. A charter of 1599 to George Seton, tutor of Meldrum, mentions the erection of the lands of Barra as a free barony and another to George Seton of Barra, in 1615, ordained that the ‘fortalice of Barra’ was to be the chief seat of the barony (RMS, VII., 460). On George Seton’s death (c1630), Barra passed to his nephew’s family, the Setons of Pitmedden. By 1658, James Seton of Pitmedden had sold Barra to James Reid, an Aberdeen advocate.

By 1672, James Reid had been succeeded by his son, John, who in 1703 received a Nova Scotia baronetcy. Sir John died c1723, succeeded by his son Alexander, who died in 1750 and was succeeded by his third son, James. James sold Barra in 1754 to John Ramsay, a ‘Russian’ merchant. In 1909–10, John Ramsay’s great-grand daughter, Mary, who had married Alexander Irvine of Drum, restored the older part of the castle. The architect was George Bennet Mitchell.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Historic Scotland

Gordon Ewart and David Murray – Kirkdale Archaeology

Information from OASIS ID: kirkdale1-249655 (G Ewart) 2009

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