Castle Maud
Tower House (Medieval)
Site Name Castle Maud
Classification Tower House (Medieval)
Canmore ID 36194
Site Number NO69NW 1
NGR NO 6238 9948
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/36194
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Kincardine O'neil
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Kincardine And Deeside
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NO69NW 1 6238 9948.
(NO 6238 9948) Castle Maud (NR).
OS 6" map, (1959)
Castle Maud, a tower-house of plain, rectangular pattern, possibly 14th century. It shows the foundations of a strong rectangular tower with appended courtyard buildings. The remains stood about 6' high in 1898, the internal measurements being about 20' by 17'. There are indications of outworks on the east side of the castle. Nothing authentic is known of its history but it is said to have been a hunting seat of the Bishops of Aberdeen in the 14th century.
W D Simpson 1929; A I McConnochie 1898.
The remains of Castle Maud measure 6.5m E/W by 5.3m transversely, within a wall of random masonry bonded with lime mortar, 1.5m thick, which survives to a maximum height of 2.4m in the SW corner. The E wall is 0.3m off square. There is a window near the centre of each wall, but no sign of a doorway, although this could have been in the SE corner which has completely collapsed.
The turf-covered foundations of the W and S sides of the courtyard wall measuring 1.6m and 1.2m in thickness respectively, are clear, but much of the plan of the internal buildings is obscured by field stones dumped into the enceinte.
There is no trace of outworks to the E, but the W wall of the courtyard appears to have been built along the inner lip of a ditch about 4.0m wide, now poorly defined and choked with cleared stones. About midway along it is a causeway corresponding to a break in the wall.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (AA) 14 August 1972.
Listed.
Scottish Castle Survey 1988; I B D Bryce 1991.