Best Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland - Map and Reviews

Access to Forbes Castle from Aberdeen is via the A944 out of Aberdeen heading west towards Alford. Turn right at Whitehouse onto the B992 (signposted Keig and Insch). Continue for three miles to where the road crosses the river Don (Keig Bridge). The entrance to Castle Forbes is 200 yards past the bridge. Castle Forbes is situated in the Vale of Alford, Aberdeenshire. For almost six hundred years it has been the seat of the Chief of Clan Forbes.The cvastle now on the site was built in 1815 by the 17th Lord Forbes. The catsle is set on the 6,000-acre Forbes Estate with views across the river Don. Castle Forbes provides luxury accommodation, and is available for weddings, special dinners, meetings and other corporate events. The former dairy building beside the castle has been converted into a perfumery. The castle grounds also has a stone circle dating back to 3,000 BC, where there is now an area dedicated to natural burials.

Udny Castle is about a quarter of a mile northeast of Udny Green and half a mile southwest of Pitmedden in Aberdeenshire. The castle was built by the Udny family in the 15th century and is still the home of family descendents. It is a five-storey harled rectangular tower house with ornamental turrets and walls 8 feet thick. It was heightened in the 17th century when bartizans at each corner and a parapet above water-spouts were added. Additional wings were added in the 19th century turning the castle into a Baronial mansion built in 1874 by architect James Maitland Wardrop. The Victorian extension was demolished in the 1960s. There is a arched entrance on the east side leading to a vaulted basement. A turnpike stair rises to the hall on the first floor, which has window-seats and a Jacobean-style ceiling from the Victorian era. The tower has been restored and remains a family home. In 1634 the Udny family moved to their other property of Knockhall Castle, but after Knockhall burned down 100 years later in 1734, they returned to Udny Castle. Udny had been abandoned while they were away, and on returning they renovated and extended the old keep.

Balmoral Castle is a large Scottish baronial estate and working royal residence located in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, within the Cairngorms National Park. It serves as the private Scottish home of the British Royal Family and is one of the most famous royal residences in the world, having been closely associated with the monarchy since the mid-nineteenth century. Unlike Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, which carry formal constitutional functions, Balmoral is cherished as a genuine private retreat where successive sovereigns have come to relax, walk the hills, and engage with the Highland landscape. The castle and its grounds are partially open to the public during the summer months, making it both an active royal household and a popular heritage attraction drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The estate's royal connection began in 1848 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first leased the original castle on the site. Albert fell so deeply in love with the landscape — drawn partly to its resemblance to the Thuringian forests of his native Germany — that in 1852 the couple purchased the estate outright. Finding the existing structure too small, Albert commissioned Aberdeen architect William Smith to design an entirely new castle in the Scottish baronial style, and the present building was completed in 1856. Victoria described Balmoral as her "dear paradise in the Highlands" and spent increasing amounts of time there, particularly after Albert's death in 1861, when it became a place of profound personal solace. The estate covers roughly 50,000 acres, encompassing moorland, forests, farms, and the River Dee, and has been expanded and developed by successive monarchs. King Edward VII, George V, and George VI all hunted and fished there extensively, and the estate became deeply embedded in the annual rhythm of royal life. Queen Elizabeth II was famously devoted to Balmoral and spent several weeks there each summer and autumn; it was at Balmoral in September 2022 that she died, making the estate a place of immense recent historical significance. The castle itself is a confident and picturesque example of Victorian Scottish baronial architecture, built from pale Invergelder granite that gives it a distinctly silvery-grey complexion in bright light and a more brooding, atmospheric tone beneath overcast Highland skies. It features a main tower rising to around thirty metres, multiple turrets, crow-stepped gables, and crenellated parapets — all hallmarks of the romanticised Highland aesthetic that Albert and Victoria were instrumental in popularising. The formal gardens surrounding the castle include rose beds, herbaceous borders, and an orangery, laid out with Victorian precision and maintained to a high standard. For visitors permitted inside during the open season, the ballroom is typically the centrepiece, housing an exhibition of artworks, tartan furnishings, and royal memorabilia that captures the distinctive Victoriana aesthetic that still pervades much of the interior. The wider estate sits in one of Scotland's most celebrated landscapes. The River Dee runs through the valley below, cold, clear, and quick over its granite bed, famous for Atlantic salmon fishing. The Cairngorm mountains rise to the south and west, their rounded plateau summits often capped with snow well into spring and sometimes dusted again by early autumn. Lochnagar, the dramatic peak immortalised by Byron in verse and by the late King Charles III in a children's story, looms strikingly above the estate to the southwest and lends the surroundings a sense of wild grandeur. The nearby village of Crathie is home to Crathie Kirk, the small Church of Scotland church where the Royal Family worship when in residence and which is itself a draw for visitors. The town of Ballater, roughly eight miles to the east, offers hotels, restaurants, independent shops, and a strong community identity shaped by its proximity to the royal estate. Visitors typically arrive between April and July, which is the period during which the castle grounds and ballroom are open to the public — the estate closes when the Royal Family arrives in residence, usually in late July or August. Access is from the A93 road, which runs through Royal Deeside and is served by Stagecoach buses from Aberdeen; the nearest railway station is Ballater in spirit, though the historic branch line was closed in 1966 and the nearest active rail connections are at Aberdeen or Aviemore, both of which require onward travel by road. The estate entrance is well signposted, and there is a visitor centre, café, gift shop, and a programme of guided tours and land rover safaris available in season. The terrain is partly accessible for visitors with mobility considerations on formal garden paths, though the wider estate walks are naturally more rugged. Spring and early summer offer the most reliable mix of mild weather and long daylight hours, while the surrounding landscape takes on spectacular purple tones during the heather flowering season in August. Among the more fascinating threads running through Balmoral's history is the extraordinary influence it had on how Scotland itself came to be perceived culturally. Victoria and Albert's enthusiastic adoption of tartan, Highland dress, and baronial aesthetics — which they expressed most lavishly at Balmoral — did much to rehabilitate the image of the Highlands after the trauma of the Clearances and the earlier suppression following Culloden. The interior of the castle, which visitors glimpse through the ballroom exhibitions, is famously saturated in Royal Stewart and Dress Stewart tartan, covering carpets, curtains, and upholstery in a manner that can seem almost overwhelming. John Brown, the Highland servant who became Victoria's close companion after Albert's death, is closely associated with the estate, and his complex relationship with the queen — the subject of enduring speculation — played out largely within these grounds. The estate also contains a number of cairns erected by Victoria to commemorate family events and bereavements, scattered across the hillside above the castle and forming a kind of private memorial landscape that speaks to the deeply personal meaning the place held for the Queen who made it famous.

Esslemont Castle is a ruined tower house situated in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, lying a few miles to the west of Ellon in the Formartine district. The castle occupies a low-lying position amid agricultural land in the valley of the Ythan river system, and while it is not one of the more celebrated castles of the northeast, it holds a quiet and melancholy dignity that rewards those who seek it out. The remains are modest — a fragment of masonry from what was once a more substantial fortified residence — but the site carries genuine historical weight and connects visitors to centuries of local noble and clan history in one of Scotland's most castle-rich regions. The origins of Esslemont Castle lie in the medieval period, with the structure most likely dating in its surviving form to the fifteenth or sixteenth century, though the site may have been occupied or fortified earlier. The castle was long associated with the Cheyne family, a prominent Aberdeenshire family of Norman descent who held lands in the area during the medieval period. Ownership later passed through various hands, as was common with Scottish tower houses whose fortunes rose and fell with those of their proprietors. The castle appears to have fallen into ruin by the seventeenth or eighteenth century, after which the stone was likely quarried for other uses in the area, a fate that befell many such structures across rural Scotland. Physically, what survives of Esslemont today is relatively fragmentary — partial walls of rubble masonry standing to varying heights, the original scale of the building discernible more from the footprint and remaining stonework than from any intact structure. The stonework is of the local grey granite and sandstone characteristic of Aberdeenshire buildings, and like many ruins of this age it has become partly clothed in vegetation, with grasses and mosses softening the broken edges of the masonry. Standing among the remains, visitors are struck by the quietness of the surroundings and the sense of deep agricultural continuity in the landscape around them. The broader landscape around Esslemont is typical of the Formartine district of Aberdeenshire — gently rolling farmland, large arable fields, belts of sheltering woodland, and the wide skies of the northeast lowlands. The River Ythan, one of the principal rivers of Aberdeenshire and notable for its pearl mussels and sea trout, flows through the wider area and contributes to the ecological richness of the region. Ellon, the nearest town of any size, lies only a short distance to the east and provides all practical amenities. The region is well known for its density of castles and historic sites, and Esslemont fits naturally into a broader itinerary that might include Haddo House, Pitmedden Garden, and the many other heritage sites managed by the National Trust for Scotland in this part of the county. Visiting Esslemont Castle requires some care in terms of access, as the ruins sit within or adjacent to private agricultural land and there is no formal heritage infrastructure — no car park, no visitor centre, no interpretation boards. Access is on foot, and visitors should be respectful of any farming operations in the vicinity. The castle is not under any formal protective management in the same way as a staffed historic attraction, and the ruins themselves should be treated with appropriate care given their fragile state. The surrounding area can be muddy in wet weather, so appropriate footwear is advisable. The best time to visit is during the drier months of late spring through early autumn, when the light in Aberdeenshire is at its most generous and the landscape is at its most hospitable, though the northeast of Scotland is unpredictable in all seasons. One of the more intriguing aspects of Esslemont's story is how comprehensively it has receded from public consciousness compared to the grander castles of the region, even while those more celebrated sites were often no more strategically or historically significant in their own time. The Cheyne family who held it were once among the more powerful landowners in Aberdeenshire, with connections reaching into the highest levels of Scottish medieval society, yet their principal seat is now little more than a field monument. This quiet anonymity is, in its own way, part of what makes Esslemont worth a visit for those interested in the texture of Scottish history away from the well-worn tourist trail, offering a more contemplative and unmediated encounter with the past than the more polished attractions of the region can provide.

Corgarff Castle is situated 20 miles north of Braemar, near the Cockbridge to Tomintoul Road - this is one of the first roads in Scotland to be blocked by snow in winter. Corgarff Castle has been of strategic importance, guarding the quickest route from Deeside to Speyside and the Moray Firth. Corgarff Castle was built by the Forbes family around 1550 as a tower house with a walled enclosure. The Forbes family were supporters of side who wanted James VI as king of Scotland. They became involved in a feud with the Gordon family from Auchindoun who were supporters of Mary Queen of Scots. In 1571 the Gordons tried to capture Corgarff and ended up burning it down killing everyone inside the castle except for the lady of the house, Margaret Forbes. Corgarff was used as a mustering point by the Royalist forces in Scotland during the Civil War. In 1689 Corgarff was burned down again by the Jacobites to prevent it being used as a base by supporters of William of Orange. In 1715, John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar launched the Jacobite rising from Kildrummy Castle, further down Strathdon. He then came to Corgarff to assemble and equip his army. After the eventual defeat of the 1715 Jacobite rising, Government forces burned down Corgarff yet again. The government gave the castle back to the Forbes family. During the final Jacobite uprising in 1745, the Jacobite forces used Corgarff Castle as an arms store. In early 1746 the Jacobites were forced to flee when hundreds of Government foot soldiers arrived unexpectedly. The fleeing Jacobites left large quantities of gunpowder and muskets behind. A few weeks later the Jacobite forces were defeated at the Battle of Culloden, although the loss of the Corgarff weapons was not a big factor in the defeat. After the 1745 rebellion was quashed, the government stationed troops across the country to prevent further uprisings. In 1748 Corgarff Castle was converted into barracks, and during this period the current star shaped encircling wall was built. From 1802 the Castle was used as a farmhouse. The castle went into decline and its last residents left during the First World War. The State took over the running of Corgarff Castle in 1961 and it has been recently restored by Historic Scotland.

Pitullie Castle is a ruined tower house near Rosehearty in Aberdeenshire, a fragment of agricultural history in the landscape of northeast Buchan. The castle ruin stands in the middle of a field in the characteristically flat, open agricultural landscape of this part of Aberdeenshire, where the proximity of the North Sea and the fertile soils of Buchan supported a dense pattern of estate farms and tower houses throughout the medieval and early modern periods. The surrounding Buchan coast with its dramatic clifftop scenery, fishing harbours and the ruins of Slains Castle, said to have inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula, provides the most dramatic heritage landscape of the region. The town of Fraserburgh nearby, with its historic Kinnaird Head Lighthouse and the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, provides the main heritage attraction of this corner of northeast Scotland.

Kinnairdy Castle is situated in the Deveron Valley at Bridge of Marnoch, between Turriff and Keith, Aberdeenshire. It is tower house dating back to the 14th century, originally built by the Innes family. The castle is owned again by the Innes family. The castle consists of a stone tower which dates to around the 14th century . Kinnairdy is available as self catering accommodation for up to eight people. Kinnairdy Castle is owned by Colin Innes, Baron of Aberchirder, and is looked after by a resident caretaker. The present castle replaced a wooden motte and bailey structure in the 14th century. During the latter part of the 14 century Kinnairdy came into the ownership of the Innes family. In 1627 Sir Robert Innes, the 20th chief, sold Kinnairdy to Sir James Crichton of Frendraught. In the 17th century it was taken over by the Gregory family, although the change of hands involved a legal dispute and murder of one of the Gregory sons. Kinnairdy Castle was the 17th century home of the Gregory family, an academic family that produced 12 professors including David Gregory, the inventor of the barometer. In 1704 the Gregory family sold the Castle to Thomas Donaldson, a merchant in Elgin, who transformed Kinnairdy from a mediaeval fortress to a 17th century style country house. Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, (Lord Lyon King of Arms 1945 - 69) bought it in 1923.

Drum Castle is situated near Drumoak in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The castle is on a ridge overlooking the River Dee, about ten miles from Aberdeen. It was the seat of the chief of Clan Irvine from 1323 to 1975. The castle is surrounded by late 18th century gardens, including a rose garden and arboretum containing trees from all regions of the British Empire. The castle is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and is open to the public during the summer. The chapel and dining hall are available for hire for weddings and corporate functions. The castle hosts a number of local events such as classic car rallies and musical fetes. Drum Castle was built as a tower house in the 13th century. It is believed to be one of the three oldest tower houses in Scotland. It was extended in 1619 when a large wing was added. Further renovations and alterations were made in Victorian times. The castle and its grounds were granted to William de Irwyn in 1325 by Robert the Bruce, and remained in the possession of Clan Irvine until 1975.

Towie Barclay Castle is located 4.5 miles south-south-east of Turriff in Aberdeenshire. The castle was built in 1593 by Clan Barclays an L-plan tower house. The building was sold to the governors of Robert Gordon's hospital in Aberdeen in 1755. Towie Barclay fell into disrepair by the mid-20th century. The castle was bought in the 1970s by the American musician Marc Ellington who undertook extensive restoration work which took over 7 years to complete. The restoration project won a Saltire Society Award in 1973. In 1792, the turrets and embrasures were removed, two stories taken off, and the ditch filled up. Legends Following a pillage of a nunnery in the 12th century by Clan Barclay, Thomas the Rhymer proclaimed: "Towie Barclay of the Glen/Happy to the maids/But never to the men.", which was interpreted as a curse on the male line. Belief in the curse was strong enough that it was given as a reason for the sale of Towie Barclay Casle in 1755.

Abergeldie Castle is six miles west of Ballater on the banks of the River Dee. From Aberdeen take the A93 Abergeldie Castle is a tower house style of castle located in Royal Deeside near the Royal Family country home at Balmoral near Ballater. The castle is three storeys tall with an attic in height and vaulted basement. The Great Hall on the first floor is vaulted. The interior has been restored and is in original condition. The Castle was built in the 16th century by Sir Alexander Gordon of Midmar who later became the Earl of Huntly. The Castle remained in the Gordon family for years, except for a short time during the first Jacobite rising when it was used it as a troop garrison. Price Albert obtained a long term lease of the castle in 1848, and future generations of Royals, including King Edward VII and George V used the Castle as a summer home. Legends Abergeldie Castle is supposed to be haunted by "French Kate" the ghost of a French women called Kittie Rankie. Poor Kate was wrongly accused on being a witch and burnt at the stake. Her ghost has been seen in the Castle cellars where she was imprisoned before her execution.

Muchalls Castle is located in the Kincardine and Mearns area of Aberdeenshire, where it is set overlooking the North Sea. The original structure is a well preserved 14th century tower house, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. In the 17th century Alexander Burnett of Leys started expanding the castle, and the work was completed in 1627 by his son, Sir Thomas Burnett. A second floor was built over the intact Middle Ages ground level structure. The castle features corbelled turrets, massive ranges of chimneys, curtain-walled entrance courtyard with two sets of triple gunloops on either side of the entrance arch, and underground crypt, 17th century stone walled terraced gardens. There are original arrow slits through exterior walls that are over a meter thick. Crow-stepped gables with large chimneys are prominent at building endpoints. The castle is an A listed historical building, and other listed structures on the castle grounds, include a stone stables and a 17th century dovecote. The second level has a number of drawing rooms with ornate plasterwork ceilings dating back to 1624. These are amongst the finest examples of plasterwork ceilings in Scotland, showing family heraldry and bible figures. The third level consists of a number of bedrooms. The original plasterwork overmantle of the Great Hall fireplace features the arms of King James VI flanked by Egyptian style figures. Several generations of the Burnett of Leys family lived in Muchalls Castle. Ownership of Muchalls Castle passed from the Burnett of Leys family about 1882. Later residents included James Robertson, Baron Robertson, President of the Scottish Court of Session, and Geraldine Simpson, heiress to the Pringle knitting fortune. In 1638 Muchalls Castle was the setting for an important meeting in the Covenanters opposition to the Episcopal liturgical system being imposed by the King. At Muchalls Castle, the Covenanters drafted a response to the Bishops of Aberdeen outlining why the bishops should sign the covenant. This was one of a number of events that led to King Charles I unexpectedly making concessions to the Covenanters .

Glenbuchat Castle is a ruined tower house of considerable historical and architectural interest, standing in the upper valley of the Don in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is one of the more complete examples of a Z-plan tower house in the northeast of Scotland, a distinctive defensive design characteristic of Scottish castle building in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The castle is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland and is listed as a scheduled ancient monument, making it freely accessible to the public. Despite its ruined state, the walls stand to a substantial height and convey a powerful sense of the building's original scale and character, drawing visitors interested in medieval Scottish history, vernacular architecture, and the rich heritage of the Aberdeenshire countryside. The castle was built in 1590, as recorded in an inscribed lintel stone above the entrance doorway which reads "IHONE GORDONE MAN HELEN CARNEGE HIS SPOVS 1590" — a dedication from John Gordon of Cairnborrow and his wife Helen Carnegie, who commissioned the building. The Gordon family were the principal inhabitants and owners through much of the castle's active life. The structure is a classic Z-plan design, consisting of a rectangular main block with two square towers placed diagonally at opposite corners, a layout that allowed defenders to provide covering fire along all faces of the walls. This ingenious military design was practical as well as visually impressive, and it became a hallmark of Aberdeenshire castle architecture during the period. The castle is most closely associated with John Gordon of Glenbuchat, a later occupant known as "Old Glenbuchat," who became a fierce and loyal Jacobite supporter. He fought at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715 and again rallied to the Jacobite cause during the 1745 uprising, joining the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie despite being elderly and in poor health by that time. His dedication to the Jacobite cause made him famous, and it is said that King George II was so alarmed by reports of this old warrior that he would wake from nightmares crying out "de great Glenboggit is coming." After the defeat at Culloden in 1746, Gordon fled Scotland and died in exile in France in 1750, never to return. The castle was forfeited following his attainder and fell into gradual disuse thereafter, becoming the atmospheric ruin visible today. In person, Glenbuchat Castle presents a striking and melancholy beauty. The tall, rough-hewn granite walls rise from a grassy knoll beside the Water of Buchat, just above its confluence with the River Don. The stonework has that characteristic Aberdeenshire quality of grey, weathered granite, darkened by lichen and centuries of Highland rain, giving the ruin a brooding, organic quality as though it is slowly being reclaimed by the hillside. The window openings and the corbelled turrets at the tower corners still survive in recognisable form, and visitors can appreciate the careful craftsmanship of the original masons even in decay. The interior is roofless and open to the sky, with the great fireplaces and mural stairs still partially visible, whispering of the domestic life once lived within these walls. The surrounding landscape is that of the upper Donside, a sweeping valley of green farmland enclosed by heather moorland and rounded granite hills. The glen has a quiet, unhurried character, far from the tourist centres of Deeside and Speyside, and gives an authentic sense of rural Aberdeenshire. The village of Strathdon lies a short distance down the valley and has basic facilities, while the A944 and A97 provide the main road connections through this remote part of the country. The area sits within the Cairngorms National Park, and the wider landscape offers opportunities for walking, fishing, and exploring other historic sites including the nearby Corgarff Castle, another tower house with its own dramatic Jacobite history, situated a few miles further up the Don valley. Visiting Glenbuchat Castle is uncomplicated and rewarding. The site is managed by Historic Environment Scotland and access is free of charge throughout the year, with the castle accessible via a short walk from a small parking area nearby. The site is not staffed and there are no visitor facilities such as toilets or a café on site, so visitors should come prepared. The castle is best visited between late spring and early autumn when the days are long, the weather is at its most forgiving, and the surrounding moorland and fields are at their most attractive. Summer visits in particular allow exploration in excellent light, though the valley can also be hauntingly beautiful in autumn when low mist clings to the hills and the bracken turns gold. Sensible footwear is advisable as the ground around the ruin can be soft and uneven. One of the more charming and lesser-known aspects of Glenbuchat Castle is how well the original building inscription has survived on the entrance lintel, providing an unusually personal and legible record of the castle's foundation. This kind of direct, named dedication to a husband and wife is a touching reminder that these structures were homes as well as fortifications, built with pride and intended to stand as statements of family identity. The castle also serves as a quiet emblem of the Jacobite story in Aberdeenshire, a region that contributed many lives and fortunes to the Stuart cause. Standing among the roofless walls, with the sound of the river below and the hills rising all around, it is not difficult to imagine the life that once animated this place, nor the sadness of its abandonment after the hopes of 1745 were finally extinguished on the field of Culloden.

Birse Castle is located in the Forest of Birse, Aberdeenshire. The original structure was a square three-storey tower house with turrets and a corbelled circular tower at the south east The castle is a B-listed historic site. The building is owned by Viscount Cowdry, Dunecht House, Dunecht, Aberdeen. Birse Castle was built about 1600 for the Gordons of Cluny. When the Gordons built Birse Castle, they encroached upon The Forest of Birse, which consisted of about 24 farms. Eighteen of these were owned by the Gordons, but the owners of the other six farms did not take too kindly to the Gordons intrusion and burned down the castle about 1640 .The castle was a ruin by 1887, but restoration started in 1905. In 1930 a three-storey wing was added.

Knockhall Castle is a ruined tower house located near the village of Newburgh in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Situated close to the southern shore of the Ythan Estuary, it represents a compelling example of Scottish baronial fortification from the sixteenth century, and its dramatic, ivy-touched ruins make it a rewarding destination for those interested in Scottish history, medieval architecture, and the wild coastal landscapes of the northeast. Though not as famous as some of Scotland's grander castles, Knockhall possesses a melancholy grandeur that rewards the visitor who seeks it out, standing as a quietly powerful remnant of a turbulent era in Scottish noble life. The castle was originally built in 1565, with the land and structure associated with the Sinclair family, who were significant landowners in this part of Aberdeenshire. It later passed into the possession of the Earl of Erroll's family, the Hays, one of the most powerful noble dynasties in northeast Scotland. The Hays of Erroll were hereditary Lord High Constables of Scotland, a title of immense prestige, and their network of properties across Buchan and the coastal lowlands reflected their regional dominance. Knockhall Castle met its end in 1639, when it was burned — reportedly due to a tragic accident involving a drunken porter who inadvertently set the structure alight, destroying it so thoroughly that it was never rebuilt or meaningfully repaired. This story, whether strictly accurate or embellished over generations, has given the ruin a somewhat ironic footnote in local history: a castle that survived the turbulence of Reformation-era Scotland succumbed not to siege or warfare but to a moment of human carelessness. Physically, what remains of Knockhall Castle is a substantial but roofless shell, its thick stone walls still rising to considerable height in places and giving a vivid impression of the building's original scale and solidity. The masonry is of the local grey and pinkish granite characteristic of Aberdeenshire, weathered and lichen-covered, blending naturally into the surrounding landscape. The tower house form — tall, compact, and defensively conceived — is recognisable despite the decay, and details of window openings and wall fabric hint at the quality of the original construction. Standing among the ruins on a breezy day, with the sound of wading birds drifting up from the estuary and the wind moving through the surrounding vegetation, the atmosphere is one of poignant, unselfconscious desolation. The surrounding landscape is one of the genuine pleasures of visiting this location. Newburgh itself sits at the mouth of the River Ythan where it meets the North Sea, and the estuary here is a nationally and internationally important nature reserve, famous for its wintering and breeding populations of wading birds, wildfowl, and notably a large colony of grey seals that haul out on the sandbanks near the river mouth. The Forvie National Nature Reserve lies just across the estuary to the north, encompassing some of the most extensive sand dune systems in Britain. The landscape in all directions is open, windswept, and characterised by a spare, northern beauty — wide skies, pale sand, dark water, and the distant line of the sea. The village of Newburgh offers a small but genuine community, with the Udny Arms hotel providing food and accommodation. In terms of practical visiting, Knockhall Castle is accessible from Newburgh, which lies roughly fifteen miles north of Aberdeen and is reachable via the A975 road. The castle is not a managed heritage attraction with staffed facilities; it is a free-to-access ruin on private or unmanaged land, and visitors should approach with appropriate care and awareness that the structure is genuinely ruinous and potentially unstable in places. There is no formal car park dedicated to the castle, and visitors typically park in or near Newburgh and approach on foot. The best times to visit are spring through autumn, when the days are long and the coastal light is at its most vivid, though the castle's austere character also suits a grey winter's day. Those combining a visit with birdwatching on the Ythan Estuary will find the autumn and winter months particularly rewarding for wildlife. One of the more intriguing aspects of Knockhall's history is its connection to the broader story of the Hay family and the earldom of Erroll, whose principal seat at Slains Castle — the dramatically sited ruin further up the Aberdeenshire coast near Cruden Bay — is often cited as one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker's Dracula. While Knockhall itself has no such gothic literary associations, its proximity to that tradition of grand, doomed Aberdeenshire castles gives it a certain imaginative resonance. The northeast of Scotland is unusually rich in ruined and semi-ruined castles, a consequence of its turbulent noble history, its geology of durable granite, and the relative lack of intensive development that might have swept such structures away, and Knockhall fits naturally into this extraordinary landscape of decay and memory.

Ravenscraig Castle is situated on the bank of the River Ugie just north-west of Inverugie. It was the seat of the barony of Torthorston, held by the Cheynes family, and passed to the Keiths in the mid 14th century. The existing castle was built in 1491. It is in a corner of a triangular moated enclosure which has traces of an enclosing wall which may be part of an earlier castle. The castle was originally called Craig of Inverugie, although has been known as Ravenscraig since the 16th century. The castle has a large tower house with walls 10 feet thick at the base, and a wing projecting to the south. The entrance leads into a once-vaulted passage between two cellars through to the north wall where there are remains of a wide straight stairway up to a round lobby at the north-east end of the hall. James VI visited the castle in 1589 to attend the marriage of the laird's daughter.