Castle of Park
Castle of Park near Cornhill in Aberdeenshire is a privately owned sixteenth-century tower house built in 1563 by George Gordon, used today for conferences, holidays and events. The castle's handsome exterior with turrets, crow-stepped gables and traditional harled walls is typical of the vernacular baronial architecture of the northeast Scottish countryside. Built by a member of the great Gordon family who dominated northeast Scotland throughout the medieval and early modern periods, the castle is one of a remarkable concentration of tower houses in Aberdeenshire. The county's Castle Trail encompasses over seventy historic sites, and from the great state-cared castles of Crathes and Craigievar to numerous privately owned tower houses like Castle of Park, Aberdeenshire offers the finest concentration of historic castle architecture in Scotland.