Braemar Castle

Braemar Castle stands on the edge of the Cairngorms near Braemar village in Aberdeenshire. Built in 1628 by John Erskine, Earl of Mar, it replaced an 11th-century stronghold linked to Kindrochit Castle. The site once controlled historic crossings of the Grampian Mounth. For centuries it served as a hunting lodge, garrison and family home for the Farquharsons. The castle was attacked in 1689 by John Farquharson, the Black Colonel of Inverey, to stop government troops using it. After the 1745 Jacobite rising it became a Hanoverian garrison until 1831. The castle’s star-shaped curtain wall and five-storey L-plan tower show its military past. Inside, stone-vaulted rooms on the ground floor held the guardroom, ammunition store and original kitchen. A second kitchen was added in Victorian times beside the staff rooms. Iron grilles protect many windows, and an iron yett guards the main entrance. On upper floors the Dining Room and Morning Room sit beside the Laird’s Day Room and Rose Room. A small bathroom was installed in 1901 between these chambers. Visitors walk through the granite halls and see graffiti carved by soldiers in 1797. The Four Poster Bedroom and guest rooms remain furnished as they were when Queen Victoria stayed. The Laird’s Pit, a dark dungeon accessed through an iron grill, lies beneath a passage floor. Outside, the castle grounds overlook the River Dee and the village. The community now runs the castle, with volunteers restoring its rooms and sharing its history.