Cortachy Castle
Cortachy Castle is a historic Scottish tower house and country estate nestled in the heart of Angus, situated at the confluence of the River South Esk and the Prosen Water in the secluded and beautiful Glens of Angus. The castle is the ancestral seat of the Earls of Airlie, members of the Ogilvy family, one of Scotland's most distinguished noble families who have held lands in this part of Scotland since the medieval period. It is not a major tourist attraction in the conventional sense — there is no visitor centre or tearoom — but it is known and admired among those who seek out Scotland's lesser-visited historic estates, and it occasionally opens its grounds for special events and charitable purposes. The estate sits within a broad landscape of mixed woodland, river meadows, and moorland, and the sense of quiet grandeur it projects is considerable.
The Ogilvy family's connection to Cortachy dates back many centuries, and the castle itself has its origins in a medieval fortification, though the structure visible today is largely the result of additions and remodelling carried out during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth centuries. The castle suffered significant damage in 1746 when it was burned by Hanoverian troops following the Jacobite Rising of 1745, in which the 4th Earl of Airlie played an active role on the Jacobite side. The family rebuilt and restored the castle in the years that followed, and further Victorian-era improvements gave the building the turreted and baronial appearance it wears today. The Ogilvy family's staunch Royalist and later Jacobite sympathies are a thread running through much of the estate's history, and the loss and recovery of the estate and its fortunes makes for a layered and dramatic story.
Perhaps the most celebrated — and certainly the most eerie — aspect of Cortachy Castle is the legend of the Airlie Drummer. According to the tradition, a ghostly drummer was heard beating his drum whenever a member of the Ogilvy family was about to die. Various versions of the legend exist, but the most common holds that a drummer was thrown from a tower of the castle, either stuffed inside his own drum or thrown along with it, as punishment for some offence — possibly for carrying love letters to Lady Airlie, or for some other transgression against the Earl. His ghost, so the story goes, was condemned to give warning of approaching death to the family. The legend attracted widespread attention in Victorian times when several witnesses, including house guests, claimed to have heard the phantom drumming, and at least one account was connected with a subsequent death in the family. Whether one believes in such things or not, the story gives the castle an undeniable atmosphere of melancholy romance.
In physical terms, Cortachy Castle is a multi-period composition of towers and ranges in the Scottish baronial manner, with harled walls, corbelled turrets, and slate roofs that blend harmoniously with the surrounding trees. The castle is set in extensive wooded grounds with mature conifers, broadleaves, and rhododendron walks, and the River South Esk flows near the boundary of the policies, adding the sound of running water to the experience of walking in the area. The setting has a quality of sheltered intimacy that is common to many of the Angus glens — the hills rise quite abruptly around the castle, giving it an enclosed and almost secret feeling, as though the rest of the world has been quietly shut out.
The surrounding landscape is among the most rewarding in lowland Scotland for anyone interested in walking, wildlife, and scenery. Cortachy sits at the foot of Glen Clova, one of the most dramatic and popular of the Angus Glens, and Glen Prosen opens nearby as well. These glacially carved valleys are excellent territory for hillwalking, with access to the Munros of the Mounth plateau to the north. The village of Kirriemuir, birthplace of J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, lies only a few miles to the south and is well worth a visit. The wider Angus landscape offers Glamis Castle, Edzell Castle, and the Pictish stones at Meigle among its other historic landmarks. The area is rich in red squirrels, raptors including ospreys in season, and red deer on the higher ground.
Access to the castle grounds is limited since this remains a private family home. The estate road from Cortachy village leads towards the castle, and the surrounding countryside can be explored via public footpaths and the well-marked routes into the glens. The nearest substantial town is Kirriemuir, approximately five miles to the south, and from there the B955 leads north through Cortachy village. There is no dedicated public transport to the castle itself, so a car is the practical requirement for most visitors. The best time to visit the area is from late spring through early autumn, when the glens are at their most accessible and the woodland around the estate is in full leaf, though the winter landscape has a stark and haunting beauty that fits the castle's ghostly reputation well.
One lesser-known aspect of the Cortachy estate's history is the role played by the Ogilvy family in the wider cultural and political life of Scotland across several centuries. The family was prominent enough that the burning of their castle in 1746 was a significant act of punitive destruction by Hanoverian forces — a fate suffered by relatively few Scots houses, and one that speaks to the importance the government placed on crushing Jacobite resistance in Angus. The subsequent restoration of the earldom and the estate to the family is itself a story of political rehabilitation. The castle, quiet and largely hidden from the road, carries this complex history within its walls, and even a visit to the surrounding grounds and the little churchyard at Cortachy Parish Church nearby — where generations of Ogilvys lie buried — gives a vivid and moving sense of continuity with Scotland's turbulent past.