Castle Croft, New Leslie
Castle (Medieval)
Site Name Castle Croft, New Leslie
Classification Castle (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) New Leslie Castle
Canmore ID 17622
Site Number NJ52NE 17
NGR NJ 587 253
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/17622
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Leslie (Gordon)
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ52NE 17 587 253.
(NJ587 253) Castle Croft, the site of the castle according to the ONB (1866), is probably that mentioned in the NSA (1845) as New Leslie the foundations of which were removed shortly before 1842. The first laird of New Leslie, George Leslie, acquired the estate sometime after 1464. The castle was the residence of the Leiths of Leith Hall from about 1600 until they built Leith Hall (NJ52NW 4) in 1650. Macfarlane (1906) records that it was ruinous in 1724.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845; Name Book 1866; Leslie 1869; A L Hay 1849; W Macfarlane 1906-8
No trace and no local knowledge of a castle hereabouts. At NJ 5882 2535 there is a small circular building 1.8m high and c.3.0m in diameter, constructed of roughly coursed mortared masonry with rubble infilling. It is clearly older than the present farm buildings, but it cannot be ascertained what it has been, or whether it was associated with the earlier castle.
Visited by OS (NKB) 21 September 1967.
'Crumbling wallhead' noted, April 1997.
(Additional bibliography cited).
NMRS, MS/712/52.
Nothing is now visible of this possible castle, which stood in a cultivated field 50m SW of New Leslie farmsteading (NJ52NE 76.00); its foundations are said to have been removed before 1842.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, IF), 2 April 1996.
