Auchindoun Castle

Auchindoun Castle stands in the rolling farmland of Moray, a ruined 15th-century tower castle near Dufftown. Its L-shaped plan and high curtain wall once enclosed stables, a brewery and a bakery. A second round tower guarded the north-west corner, while cellars and dungeons were cut straight into the bedrock. The central tower has now collapsed, leaving only fragments of the walls and outbuildings. Historic Environment Scotland keeps the site as a scheduled monument, though it was closed to visitors for many years. After repairs finished in 2007 the ruins reopened for viewing. The castle’s past is full of conflict. Mary, Queen of Scots ordered its surrender in 1562, and John Gordon was executed soon after. In 1592 the Mackintoshes burned it in revenge for the Earl of Huntly’s killing of the Bonny Earl O’Moray. Later, James VI ordered the castle slighted after the battle of Glenlivet. John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, used it as a Jacobite headquarters in June 1689 before it fell into ruin. A traditional ballad, ‘The Burning of Auchindoun’, still recalls the Mackintoshes’ raid. Visitors today walk among the remaining curtain wall and outbuildings, tracing the outline of the old compound. The site offers wide views over the surrounding fields and the River Fiddich. The ruins lie quiet beside Balvenie Castle, whose stones once came from Auchindoun. The atmosphere is one of gentle decay, where history is visible in every crumbling stone.