Kildrummy Castle

Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire.

Even as a ruin, Kildrummy’s great size and strength are easy to appreciate. Though north-east Scotland has many fine strongholds, Kildrummy is known as ‘the noblest of northern castles’. In its medieval heyday, the huge castle dominated Strathdon as seat of the mighty earls of Mar.

Built in the mid-1200s, Kildrummy was seldom far from the political spotlight. As Scottish kings battled to overcome rebellion in Moray, the castle guarded the point where main routes from the south met before entering Moray and Buchan.

In 1435, James I annexed the earldom of Mar and took ownership of Kildrummy. This is often used as an example of his policy of reducing the power of his nobles. But James was heavily in debt and would also have benefited from the earldom’s sizeable revenues.

The Erskine earls of Mar finally won control of Kildrummy in 1626. They remained loyal to the Catholic King James VII and II following his exile in 1688, and became well-known Jacobites.

In 1715, John Erskine returned to Kildrummy to begin a rising in support of James VII’s son, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, ‘the Old Pretender’. When that rising failed, the earl went into exile, and Kildrummy’s days as a noble residence came to an end.