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Latitude: 57.693 / 57°41'34"N
Longitude: -2.9147 / 2°54'52"W
OS Eastings: 345571
OS Northings: 867386
OS Grid: NJ455673
Mapcode National: GBR M85D.7HJ
Mapcode Global: WH7KC.6WBV
Entry Name: Castle of Findochty
Scheduled Date: 9 December 1992
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM5489
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Secular: castle
Location: Rathven
County: Moray
Electoral Ward: Buckie
Traditional County: Banffshire
The monument consists of the remains of the sixteenth-century towerhouse described on the map as "Castle of Findochty" but locally known as "Findochty" or "House of Findochty". The building, 40m S of Findochty Mains, is situated on a slightly raised rocky platform that has traces of a retaining wall on the S. Findochty was formerly at the W end of a small Loch, now drained.
The towerhouse originally extended further E, but a single-storeyed extension incorporating part of the enclosing N wall and masonry from the towerhouse has replaced the easternmost part. The three-storey, L-shaped towerhouse has a square stair-tower projecting from the N wall with the re-entrant angle in the NW. The ruined towerhouse stands to a height of c.8m and measures 10.8m N-S by 5.1m E-W (the extension projects 10.1m from the E wall and is 6.1m N-S). The harled rubble walls of the towerhouse are 0.85m thick.
The dressings, now badly weathered, are in roughly tooled sandstone. The hall has been on the first floor above a vaulted undercroft which presumably held the kitchen. The ground-floor entrance with relieving arch is in the S wall. In the W wall of the undercroft is a large fireplace. Part of a courtyard wall projects 1.5m from the NE corner of the extension. It reappears as a stretch of foundation 8.5m to the E and is visible for approximately 11m.
The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, and includes the castle and associated boundary walls, measuring a maximum of 70m ENE- WSW by 40m NNW-SSE, as shown in red on the accompanying map.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument is of national importance because it is an example, albeit reduced, of a simple defensive residence first mentioned in 1568 which provides evidence and has the potential to provide further evidence, through excavation, for domestic architecture, social organisation, rural settlement and material culture in Scotland during the late medieval/early modern period.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as NJ 46 NE 2.
References:
MacGibbon, D. and Ross, T. (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, 5v, Vol. 3, 608-9, Edinburgh.
Simpson, W. D. (1931b) 'Three Banffshire castles', Trans Banffshire Fld Club, 92-4.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
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