Huntly Castle
Huntly Castle | |
---|---|
Huntly, Aberdeenshire | |
Coordinates | 57°27′18″N 2°46′52″W / 57.45488°N 2.78117°W |
Type | L-plan tower house |
Site information | |
Controlled by | Strathbogie family (1100-1314) Clan Gordon (1314- ) |
Site history | |
Built | 12th century |
Built by | Duncan II, Earl of Fife |
Huntly Castle is a ruined
Location
Huntly Castle was built on the crossing of the rivers Deveron and Bogie, north of Huntly and roughly 40 miles from Aberdeen. The original wooden castle was built on a motte. The second castle, made of stone, was built on the northern end of the bailey. The third and modern castles were built to the east of the original, at the southern end of the estate.[2]
History
The castle was originally built by Duncan II, Earl of Fife, on the Strathbogie estate sometime around 1180 and 1190.[2][1] The castle became known as the Peel of Strathbogie.[3]
The Earl Duncan's third son, David, inherited the Strathbogie estate and later, through marriage, became earls of Atholl around 1204.[1] During the Strathbogie family's time at the estate, Robert the Bruce was a guest after falling ill at Inverurie. The family was loyal to him and when he got better, Robert the Bruce went on to win the battle of Bannockburn.[3] However, around 1314, David of Strathbogie shifted his support to the English right before Robert the Bruce won the battle of Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce saw this as treachery and granted the castle and estate to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly because he was consistently loyal. In 1506, the castle was officially renamed Huntly Castle.[2]
Reign of James IV
Although the castle was burned to the ground, a grander castle was built in its place. In 1496, the pretender to the English throne,
Reign of Mary, Queen of Scots
William Mackintosh was executed on 23 August 1550 at "Castle Strathbogie", as a conspirator against the Earl of Huntly, the queen's lieutenant in the North.[7]
The English diplomat
George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly died after the
John Gordon, Earl of Sutheerland
John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland and his wife Marion Seton were poisoned at Helmsdale Castle in 1567 by Isobel Sinclair, the wife of Gordon of Gartly.[15] Isobel Seton's own son also died, but the fifteen-year-old heir of Sutherland, Alexander Gordon was unharmed. He was made to marry the Earl of Caithness' daughter Barbara Sinclair. In 1569 he escaped from the Sinclairs to Huntly Castle and remained at Huntly until he came of age in 1573. Barbara Sinclair died, and Alexander Gordon, now Earl of Sutherland, married Jean Gordon, former wife of the Earl of Bothwell, who had also found a refuge at Huntly Castle.[16]
A fatal football match
An early description of the death of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly in 1576, compiled by Richard Bannatyne gives some details of how the castle was used.[17] The Earl suffered a stroke, or a collapse caused by food poisoning, while playing football outside the Castle on the Green. He was taken through the outer gate to his bedchamber in the round tower of the palace block, which was then called the "New Warke of Strathbogie." The Earl's bedchamber was adjacent to his "Grit Chalmer", the Great Chamber. After the Earl died, his body was laid out in the "Chamber of Dais", another name for the Great Chamber, and his valuables were secured in the bedchamber. After the Earl's steward left the castle, a number of alleged supernatural events occurred beginning with the sudden collapse of one of the servants in the "Laich Chalmer", Low Chamber. This "Laich Chalmer" was in another part of the castle, under a stair opposite the "Auld Hall." On the following day, a servant went up to the Gallery at the top of the "New Warke" where spices (which were precious) were stored. This servant and two companions also collapsed and when revived complained of feeling cold. After the Earl's body was embalmed and taken to the chapel, his brother sat on a bench in the Hall by the Great Chamber door, and heard unexplained sounds from the chamber. It was said that "there is not a live thing bigger than a mouse may enter in that chamber with the door locked."[18]
James VI slights the castle
In March 1584 an English recusant Catholic
In March 1593 a royal garrison of 16 men commanded by Archie Carmichael was to be put in Huntly Castle.[21] In May 1593 the Earl captured a man called Pedder in the lands of Atholl. Pedder was hanged and dismembered and his body parts displayed on poles at Huntly.[22]
In July 1594 Huntly was overseeing the building of a new hall and gallery.[23] Following the battle of Glenlivet, James VI came with workmen again and his master of works William Schaw, and planned to blow up the "gret old tower" which had been "fourteen years in building" on 29 October 1594.[24] The kirk minister Andrew Melville was with the king and a vocal advocate for demolition.[25] Aberdeen town council bought twenty stones in weight of gunpowder for the demolition of Huntly and other places,[26] and sent the stonemason John Fraser and other workmen to the demolition work at Huntly and Old Slains Castle, equipped with new shovels.[27]
The royal council met at Terrisoule to discuss the planned demolition on 28 October. Some Lords wanted the fortress kept to hold a loyal garrison. James VI still wished the whole castle, the new and old work, to be slighted.[28] It was decided not to completely demolish Huntly and Slains Castle and other houses, but preserve them for the convenience of the royal garrisons. It was also said that the pleas of the Countesses of Huntly and Erroll to save the houses were successful.[29] David Foulis wrote to Anthony Bacon that Henrietta Stewart, Countess of Huntly, watched the demolition at Huntly and was not allowed to have an audience with the king to plead her case.[30] The king made his friend Sir John Gordon of Pitlurg the keeper of the remaining buildings at Huntly.[31]
Restored for a Marquess
The Marquess of Huntly restored and rebuilt the castle.[32] In 1746, an English soldier, James Ray, saw the ruins and commented on ceilings, still decorated with "history-painting".[33]
Huntly spent large sums restoring and enlarging the castle in April 1597.[34] The restored facade of the main block was carved with the names and titles of the marquess, "George Gordon" and his wife, "Henrietta Stewart" who was a favourite of the queen, Anne of Denmark.[35] In February 1603 James VI made plans to resolve the Marquess's feuds including a royal visit to Huntly with Anne of Denmark and the Earl of Moray later in the year. The visit did not take place because of the death of Elizabeth I and the subsequent Union of the Crowns.[36]
In 1640 the Castle was occupied by the Scottish Covenanter army under Major-General
Captured in October 1644, the castle was briefly held by
An inventory made by the garrison shows the state rooms were still fully furnished, including the earl's 'chapel bed'.[37] In 1650 Charles II visited briefly on his way to the Battle of Worcester, defeat and exile. The Civil War brought an end to the Gordon of Huntly family's long occupation of the castle.
In 1689, during the
Huntly Castle remained under the ownership of the Clan Gordon until 1923. Today, the remains of the castle are cared for by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.[38]
References
- ^ a b c d "History". www.historicenvironment.scot. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Huntly Castle Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland". www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
- ^ a b "Huntly Castle". aboutaberdeen.com. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. xlix-l, 124, 401, for "prop" see 'Prop', Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1500-1504, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 462-4: Imtiaz Habib, Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500-1677 (London, 2008), p. 29.
- ^ Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1506-1507, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. 165, 168.
- ^ James Balfour, Annals: The Historical Works of James Balfour, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1824), 297: Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), 92.
- ^ John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (Fourth Estate, 2009), p. 163.
- ^ CSP. Foreign, Elizabeth, vol. 5 (London, 1867), nos. 648, 688, 718, 823: CSP. Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 652.
- ^ David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), 77.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 654-5, 657-8.
- ^ Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 214, 217: Michael Pearce, Michael Pearce, '"Beds of 'Chapel" form in sixteenth-century Scottish inventories: the worst sort of beds', Regional Furniture, vol. 27 (2013), pp. 78-91
- ^ Joseph Stevenson, Selections (Glasgow, 1837), p. 217.
- ^ William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 274.
- ^ Fraser, William, ed., Sutherland Book, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1892), pp. 121-4, 127-9
- ^ Margaret Sanderson, Mary Stewart's People (Mercat Press: Edinburgh, 1987), pp. 42-3.
- ^ John Graham Dalyell, Journal of the Transactions in Scotland, by Richard Bannatyne (Edinburgh, 1806), pp. xviii, 483-492.
- ^ Pitcairn, Robert ed., Bannatyne's Memorials of the Transactions in Scotland (1834), 334-5: McKean, Charles, The Scottish Chateau (Sutton, 2001), 109.
- ^ William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1584-1585, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 36.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 51-2.
- ^ Annie Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 72 no. 43.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 91.
- ^ Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 375.
- ^ Annie Cameron,Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 470.
- ^ Robert Pitcairn, Autobiography and diary of James Melville (Edinburgh, 1842), pp. 314, 319.
- ^ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 183-4.
- ^ Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. 5 (Aberdeen, 1852), pp. 61-2
- ^ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 185-6.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 471 no. 398.
- ^ Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 192.
- ^ Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. 1 (Aberdeen, 1841), p. 9.
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 512 no. 412: Charles McKean, Scottish Chateau (Sutton: Stroud, 2001), pp. 216-7.
- ^ James Ray, A Journey Through Part of England and Scotland (London, 1747), p. 184
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 512 no. 412.
- ^ Charles McKean, Scottish Chateau (Stroud, 2001), pp. 216-7.
- ^ John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:2 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 1106 no. 897.
- ^ Michael Pearce, '"Beds of 'Chapel" form in sixteenth-century Scottish inventories: the worst sort of beds', Regional Furniture, vol. 27 (2013), pp. 84-5: Michael Pearce, Whispers from An Age Gone By', Historic Scotland Magazine, (Winter 2016), pp. 16-18: Maria Hayward, Stuart Style (Yale, 2020), p.p. 244-5.
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Huntly Castle (SM90165)". Retrieved 27 February 2019.
- ^ "1987 Pure Strength Contest". strongestman.billhenderson.org.
External links
- Historic Environment Scotland: Visitor guide
- More photographs of Huntly Castle
- Take a 360 Virtual Tour of Huntly Castle Grounds
- Engraving of Huntly Castle by James Fittler in the digitised copy of Scotia Depicta, or the antiquities, castles, public buildings, noblemen and gentlemen's seats, cities, towns and picturesque scenery of Scotland, 1804 at National Library of Scotland
- Video images and narration - Huntly Castle & Huntly Lodge