Qualla: Braemar Castle

Braemar Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. The graffiti on the window shutters reads 'John Chestnut, Sergeant, 1797.' A Hanoverian soldier, posted to a castle deep in the Cairngorms, scratching his name into wood to prove he existed. His mark has outlasted empires. Braemar Castle, sitting beside the River Dee near the village of Braemar in Aberdeenshire, has spent four centuries being built, burned, seized, garrisoned, planted with millions of trees, and finally handed back to the community that surrounds it. It is a story of shifting loyalties in a landscape where loyalty was the most dangerous commodity of all.

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Image: Colin Smith | CC BY-SA 2.0

Braemar Castle: Built to Counter a Clan

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Camer01, CC BY-SA 3.0. John Erskine, Earl of Mar, constructed the castle in 1628 as a hunting lodge -- but also as a statement of power against the rising influence of the Farquharsons, the dominant clan in the upper Dee valley. The site replaced an older building that succeeded nearby Kindrochit Castl...

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Image: Camer01 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Braemar Castle: The Black Colonel's Fire

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stanley Howe, CC BY-SA 2.0. The castle's first destruction came from the very family it was built to contain. During the Jacobite rising of 1689, John Farquharson -- known as the Black Colonel of Inverey -- attacked and burned Braemar Castle to prevent government troops from using it as a garrison. The Earl...

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Image: Stanley Howe | CC BY-SA 2.0

Braemar Castle: Sixteen Million Trees

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0. The military purpose faded, but the estate found new life. Between 1760 and 1806, James Farquharson of Invercauld planted sixteen million fir trees and two million larch across the grounds -- a staggering act of reforestation that transformed the landscape around the castle. The ...

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Image: Geni | CC BY-SA 4.0

Braemar Castle: The Community's Castle

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2007, the castle was leased to the local community. It is now run by Braemar Community Ltd, staffed by local volunteers, and open to the public since 2008 following an ambitious restoration programme. Walking through the rooms, a visitor encounters the full arc of the castle's...

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Image: Geni | CC BY-SA 4.0