Archaeology Notes

Event ID 686570

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/686570

NO31NW 7 30637 17195 .

NO31NW 53.01 30610 17160 Collairnie, Steading

(NO 3060 1713) Collairnie Castle (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6"map, (1959)

Collairnie Castle has been a large and impressive building L-shaped on plan with enclosing curtain walling but it has now been incorporated into the modern farm-steading. The main block has been reduced to a single storey, re-roofed and partly rebuilt for use as a barn, and the wing, which is dated 1581, and may be later than the rest of the building, is 4 storeys and an attic high. The second and third floor chambers have very fine painted ceilings. The castle was owned by the Barclay family till 1789, when it passed to the Balfours. Mary Queen of Scots is believed to have spent three nights here in 1564 on her way to St Andrews.

RCAHMS 1933; N Tranter 1962-70.

Collairnie Castle is as described and planned, the walls, of rubble with freestone dressings, being in good condition, but the wood-work, including the painted ceilings, is in an advanced state of decay. In the barn on the NW of the wing, are visible two doorways and a blocked fireplace, the remains of the main block.

Visited by OS (D S) 2 November 1956.

No change.

Visited by OS (R D) 17 March 1970.

This large rectangular plan, into which a 16th century tower has been incorporated, has an engine/ boiler house with a chimney for steanm threshing. There is a 1920s silo and a detached implement shed to the NW and a house to the SW. There was a low level of agricultural use on the date of visit but the site was in fair order overall.

RCAHMS and NMS, 1998a