Qualla: Fyvie Castle

Fyvie Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter van der Wielen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Her name is still there, carved into the stone windowsill of the room that was supposed to be hers. Dame Lilias Drummond died in 1601, wasted away - some said from grief, others from neglect - while her husband Alexander Seton was already courting his second wife. Within months of Lilias's death, Seton married Grizel Leslie and brought her to Fyvie Castle. On their wedding night, the newlyweds found the name 'D LILIAS DRUMMOND' gouged into the windowsill of the bridal chamber, on the exterior face of the wall, fifty feet above the ground. No one has ever explained how it got there. Lilias, now the Green Lady, has never left.

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Image: Peter van der Wielen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fyvie Castle: Five Families, Five Towers

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LeCardinal, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fyvie Castle is structured around a principle that no architect planned but that history imposed: five towers, each built by a different family that held the castle in succession. The Preston Tower is the oldest, dating to the thirteenth century. The Meldrum Tower followed. The S...

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Image: LeCardinal | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fyvie Castle: Thomas the Rhymer's Curse

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Brackenridge, CC BY-SA 2.0. According to legend, Thomas the Rhymer - the thirteenth-century poet and prophet whose predictions pervade Scottish folklore - passed through Fyvie and pronounced a curse. The castle would never descend through more than two generations of the same family, he said, unless three s...

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Image: Ian Brackenridge | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fyvie Castle: A Gallery of Portraits

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fionam890, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Forbes-Leith family, who acquired Fyvie in 1889 and restored it extensively with money from American steel interests, filled the castle with one of the finest private portrait collections in Scotland. Works by Raeburn, Batoni, Gainsborough, and other major artists hang in roo...

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Image: Fionam890 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fyvie Castle: Montrose at the Gates

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alison Mack, CC BY-SA 2.0. Fyvie saw military action during the Scottish Civil War when the Marquess of Montrose fought the Battle of Fyvie in October 1644. Montrose, leading his Royalist force through Aberdeenshire, was pursued by a Covenanter army under Argyll. The two sides clashed in the grounds of the...

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Image: Alison Mack | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fyvie Castle: The Green Lady's Castle

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martyn Gorman, CC BY-SA 2.0. The National Trust for Scotland took ownership of Fyvie in 1984, and the castle is now open to visitors who can trace the five-tower sequence and search for the carved name on the windowsill. The Green Lady remains Fyvie's most famous resident - staff and visitors report sighting...

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Image: Martyn Gorman | CC BY-SA 2.0