Corgarff Castle

Corgarff Castle stands slightly west of the village of Corgarff in upland Aberdeenshire, in the north-east of Scotland, close to the Lecht road that crosses the pass between Strathdon and Tomintoul. It began around 1530 as a tower house built by the Elphinstone family and leased to the Forbes of Towie, and its early history was violent. In 1571 Adam Gordon of Auchindoun burned the castle, killing Margaret Campbell, Lady Forbes, her children and others — twenty-six in all — a slaughter remembered in the old ballad “Edom o Gordon”. In 1607 Alexander Forbes of Towie and his companions seized it back from Alexander, 4th Lord Elphinstone, breaking down the gate with hammers and battering rams. The castle was burned again in 1689 and in 1716, both times by Jacobite supporters. In 1748, in the aftermath of the last Jacobite rising, the British government bought the tower and rebuilt it as a barracks, stationing a detachment of troops on the military road running from Braemar Castle to Fort George near Inverness. Soldiers remained until 1831, after which the building was used to suppress illegal whisky distilling in the surrounding hills. It is now cared for by Historic Environment Scotland and opens to visitors seasonally.