Castle Fraser

Castle Fraser stands in the Aberdeenshire countryside as one of the most elaborate Z-plan tower houses in Scotland — a five-storey stronghold whose offset corner towers give the form its distinctive stepped silhouette. Building began in 1575 under Michael Fraser, 6th Laird of Fraser, and was not completed until 1636, the work raised on the footings of an earlier tower; archaeological traces of a square tower from around 1400 to 1500 survive beneath it. Two master masons shaped the design over these decades, John Bell of Midmar — whose mark “I Bel” can still be read on the northern wall — and Thomas Leiper. Inside, a medieval stone-vaulted Great Hall anchors the older core. The castle stayed in Fraser hands for centuries and was reworked to suit changing tastes: Elyza Fraser modernised it in classical style in the late 18th century, adding an octagonal stable block, and Charles Fraser remodelled the interiors between 1820 and 1850 with the architects John Smith and William Burn. The direct male line ended in 1897 when Frederick Mackenzie Fraser died childless; his widow Theodora sold the estate in 1921 to Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, whose family gave it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1976.