Daviot Castle

NH74SW 4 7292 4071.

(NH 7292 4071) Daviot Castle (NR) (Ruin)

OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906)

A castle at Daviot was built, by the Moravia family during the penetration of Scotland by the Normans.

G Bain 1893.

Daviot Castle is said to have been built by David Earl of Crawford, in the beginning of the 15th century. It had a dry ditch and drawbridge on the west side, and was defended by natural declivities on the three others. It consisted of an old square building, with four circular towers, one springing from each corner. The wall and towers and part of the gate were entire in the beginning of the 18th century, and the ruins still existed in 1840.

The castle was ultimately destroyed to provide lime for manure.

ISSFC 1893; ISSFC 1928.

An axehead of green-veined stoned beautifully found on the site of the Castle of Daviot, was exhibited by the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in Edinburrgh in 1856.

Archaeol Inst Great Britain Ireland 1859.

In the Museum of the Northern Institution, which existed between 1825 and 1835, was a 'Beautiful Stone Axe found at Castle Daviot near Inverness.' (A catalogue of this museum compiled about 1827 is frequently quoted in the Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Soc Fld Club).

J Barron 1915.

Daviot Castle probably occupied the flat top of the small promontory which stretches north from the present Daviot House and was defended by steep natural slopes in its north, west and east sides. The dry-ditch and draw-bridge, mentioned by ISSFC (1893) as being on the west side was more probably on the south side. No trace of this ditch remains. The remains of the castle consist of a tower which was probably the tower at the north east angle of the castle. The tower, of moriared masonry, has an internal diameter of 4.1m and the wall varies in thickness from 20-1.7m. The wall has a maximum external height of 4.5m on the east side but merges with the slopes on the west side. The internal height of the wall is c.1.0m rising to a maximum of 3.0m in the east side. No further information was found regarding the stone axe found there.

Visited by OS (W D J) 28 August 1963.

Location cited as NH 722 393. [Probably refers to this monument].

P A Yeoman 1988.