Cairnbulg Castle

About this place

Cairnbulg Castle stands on the banks of the River Philorth in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

It is built to a z-plan, with a large square tower at one corner and a 16th-century round tower added at the other, linked by a range known as the low work.

The castle was originally known as Philorth Castle and has long been linked to the Fraser family of the area.

It remains in private hands, and visits are arranged by appointment through the castle itself rather than a national heritage body.

History

The castle was originally called Philorth Castle, tying it to the Fraser lairds who held the Philorth estate. A separate 17th-century house on the same estate, also known as Philorth, was an L-plan building with a large crow-stepped gable block. That house burned down in 1915, leaving the older z-plan castle as the surviving family seat.

Architecture

The castle follows a z-plan layout, a defensive form popular among Scottish lairds, with a large square tower at one corner and a 16th-century round tower added at the opposite corner, joined by a connecting range known as the low work.

Worth knowing

The Aberdeenshire historian W. Douglas Simpson grouped Cairnbulg Castle among his nine castles of the Knuckle, a name for the fortified houses scattered across the rocky headland of the north-east coast.