Cluny Castle []
History[]
Cluny Castle | |
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Location Information | |
Name | Cluny Castle |
Owner | private |
NGR | NJ 68900 12743 |
Lon. & Lat. | 57.204595,-2.516508 |
Council | Aberdeenshire |
Parish | Cluny |
Nearby Castles | Tillycairn, Fetternear |
Year built | 1604 |
Overview map | |
The Barony of Cluny was held by Sir Andrew Fraser in the early 14th century. In 1345 David II granted it to his sister Margaret and her husband, William 5th Earl of Sutherland. By 1437 it had passed to Alexander Gordon, later 1st Earl of Huntly, and his descendants still own it. In 1604 the mason John Bell designed an extremely picturesque new Z-plan castle for Thomas Gordon, probably setting it on the site of a 12th century mote with a water filled ditch. Sketches of this masterpiece survive from before 1836-40 when a great neo-Gothic mansion was raised on the site and the surrounding grounds were landscaped. It was not until the building was investigated after a fire in 1926 that it was realized that the SW corner of the mansion was in fact the castle of 1604 shorn of its turrets, refaced in granite, and remodeled inside.