Archaeology Notes

Event ID 653208

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/653208

ND12NE 1.00 15801 28264

(ND 1580 2826) Dunbeath Castle (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1973).

ND12NE 1.01 ND 15372 28911 Gate Lodge

ND12NE 1.02 ND 15571 28424 Stables

ND12NE 1.03 ND 15662 28403 Southern walled garden

ND12NE 1.04 ND 15725 28444 Northern walled garden

ND12NE 1.05 ND 15713 28476 Northern walled garden, pavilion (Laundry)

ND12NE 1.06 ND 15303 28991 Dovecot

See also:

ND12NE 5 ND 1546 2795 Croft

ND12NE 20 ND 15359 28910 Trompe l'Oeil Gates

Dunbeath Castle occupies a striking cliff-top site, defended to landward by a deep dry ditch. Although it is said to contain 15th century work, the building dates substantially from the first half of the 17th century; it is still occupied and entire, with large modern additions to N and E. The plan is an oblong, some 64ft by 25ft, of four storeys, with two-storey angle-turrets at all angles save the NE. The northern of two stair-turrets in the centre of the main W front is modern, replacing a similar one shown in an 1821 drawing, but missing by 1891. The walls, reaching 5 ft in thickness, are harled and whitewashed, the roofs steep, the gables crosstepped, and there are numerous gunloops and shot-holes. The round-headed doorway between the two frontal turrets is modern. Internally there has been much alteration.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1895; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; N Tranter 1962-70.

Dunbeath Castle is as described and illustrated by previous authorities.

Visited by OS (R L), 6 March 1968.

No change to the previous field report. The mansion is still inhabited.

Visited by OS (N K B), 21 March 1983.