Archaeology Notes

Event ID 668458

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/668458

NJ65NE 15 69792 58778

(NJ 6979 5878) Eden Castle (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1902)

For Eden House (NJ 6987 5995) and associated buildings, see NJ65NE 20.00.

Eden Castle is of the period between 1542 and 1700. In the sixteenth century the lands belonged to the Meldrums, by whom the castle may have been built. In 1676-7 it seems to have been extensively repaired by George Leslie, to whom it then belonged. This date is carved on some parts of the castle.

The edifice is now very ruinous, and the buildings which adjoined the main block to the north have been entirely demolished. The original plan seems to have been that of a main central building, with two towers at diagonally opposite angles. That at the south-west angle still remains. The castle seems to have been extended to the northwards with a round tower at the north-west angle of the existing building, and may perhaps have formed a courtyard.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92.

As described above. The North face of the main central building has now partially collapsed while the remains of the small round tower at the NW angle are now incorporated in the modern field wall. A modern stone shed abuts the South side of the SW tower.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 22 September 1964.