Kildrummy Castle

Kildrummy Castle

The noblest of northern castles

In the hills of Aberdeenshire stand the broken but still mighty ruins of Kildrummy, once called the "noblest of northern castles." In its great days, around the year 1240, it was one of the strongest fortresses in the north of Scotland: a huge courtyard ringed by a curtain wall, guarded by six round towers and a powerful twin-towered gatehouse.

Kildrummy was the chief seat of the Earls of Mar, one of the oldest and grandest noble families in the land. From here they controlled a wide stretch of the country, and kings turned to them in times of trouble.

A siege and a cruel betrayal

Kildrummy's most famous and terrible story comes from the Wars of Scottish Independence, when Scotland fought to be free of English rule. In 1306, the family and supporters of Robert the Bruce — newly crowned king and on the run — sheltered behind Kildrummy's walls while the English army closed in.

The castle was strong, and the defenders held out bravely. But it fell through treachery. According to the legend, a blacksmith named Osbarn was bribed by the besiegers to set fire to the castle's great store of grain from within. The fire spread, and Kildrummy was forced to surrender.

The traitor had been promised "as much gold as he could carry." The story says the English kept their word in the cruellest way: they poured the gold, melted red-hot, down his throat. True or not, the tale shows how bitterly Kildrummy was remembered in the wars.

The Jacobite earl

Kildrummy stayed important for centuries, but its end came with another rebellion. In 1715, John Erskine, Earl of Mar — nicknamed "Bobbing John" because he kept changing sides — launched the great Jacobite rising of that year from Kildrummy, raising an army to try to restore the exiled Stuart kings.

The rising failed. As punishment, the earl lost his lands, and Kildrummy was deliberately wrecked — its roofs stripped, its stones robbed — so that it could never again be a stronghold. Slowly it sank into the ruin we see today.

Kildrummy today

Even in ruins, Kildrummy is impressive: visitors can trace the great curtain wall, the bases of its towers, the gatehouse, and the elegant windows of its chapel, which still stand against the sky. Cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, it is a powerful reminder of the age when the Earls of Mar were among the mightiest lords in the land — and of the wars and betrayals that brought their great castle low.