Archaeology Notes

Event ID 693963

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/693963

NO88NW 2.00 84266 85490

NO88NW 2.01 84386 85391 Dovecot

NO88NW 2.02 8388 8539 North Lodge

NO88NW 2.03 84099 85440 Walled Garden with Summer House

NO88NW 2.04 8408 8564 Garden Cottages

NO88NW 2.05 8427 8600 Home Farm

NO88NE 92 8537 8574 East Lodge

(NO 8425 8550) Fetteresso Castle (NR)

OS 6" map, (1938)

The castle which Bishop Leslie, in 1578, called Fetteresso Palace (palace = hall, and distinguishes the building as a residence) developed as a long block with a courtyard or close, typical of the 15th century, with the addition of a similar block to the east forming two sides of a quadrangle. It was this east portion which was burnt by Montrose in 1645 and reconstructed in 1670-1. According to Duthie (Ordnance Survey Name Book [ONB] 1865) the buildings originally had eight slender towers, but only one remained in 1865.

In 1808 the castle was rebuilt incorporating the old portion, on one of the door-lintels of which could be seen in 1865, the arms of the Earl Marischal, dated 1671. It was at this doorway that the Chevalier de St George was proclaimed king on his arrival from France in 1715. A tall beehive dovecot, of 15th century date, stands beside a pond to the southeast of the castle: the latter has been demolished (Robertson 1957).

W M Mackenzie 1927; J Leslie; D G Barron 1925; Name Book 1865; F C Eeles 1897; A N Robertson 1957.

Fetteresso Castle is generally as described above, but it is now unroofed and derelict. The 17th century 'Marischal' crest is still to be seen. The 15th century dovecot is still extant.

Visited by OS (R D) 23 July 1965.

The ruinous shell of this early 19th-century mansion incorporates at least two distinct portions of an older house. The earlier, which probably belongs to the 16th century, comprises a three storeyed block aligned on a SW-NE axis. The ground floor incorporates a range of barrel-vaulted cellars and a kitchen, and there is an extruded stair tower on the SE side; traces of what seems to have been another tower are visible at the S corner. To the N corner of this block, and extending NW at right-angles from it, there was added in the 17th century another of similar height. This faces SW into what may have been a courtyard and its three ground floor doorways bear, respectively, the Marischal arms, the date 1671 and the initials WEM/ ACM (William, Earl Marischal and Anne, Countess Marischal). When the house was enlarged in the 19th century, service corridors were added to the courtyard fronts of the two early blocks and their re-entrant angles were infilled to accommodate a new staircase and principal entrance aligned on an E-W axis. In 1645 the house was burnt by Montrose, and although it was rebuilt, it was apparently in a state of neglect by 1715. A well preserved 16th-century beehive dovecot stands on the edge of a field 140m SE of Fetteresso Castle (NO 8438 8539). About 120m SSW of the castle, an ice-house, ovoid in shape, has been built into the crest of a bank. A walled garden, terraces, a boat house (NO 8438 8536) and an artificial lake (now drained) are all that survive of the policies.

W Robertson 1798; J Spalding 1851; Name Book 1865; J B Paul 1904-14; W Macfarlane 1906-8; W M Mackenzie 1927; RCAHMS 1984, visited March 1984.

Listed.

Scottish Castle Survey 1988; N Bogdan and I B D Bryce 1991.

Visible on air photographs AAS/93/06/G15/1-2. Copies held by Grampian Regional Council.

Information from M Greig, Grampian Regional Council, March 1994.

Air photograph: AAS/94/05/G13/8,

NMRS, MS/712/21.