Qualla: Pitsligo Castle

Pitsligo Castle: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sagaciousphil, CC BY-SA 3.0. The walls of the drum tower at Pitsligo Castle are nine feet thick. They were built that way in the early fifteenth century, when stone was the only effective answer to anyone who came calling with bad intentions. The keep dates to 1424. Six centuries later, what stands above ground is roofless but stubborn - an outer court, an inner court, gateways carved with arms and dates, and that tower at the north-east angle, still squared against the Aberdeenshire wind. The castle sits half a mile east of Rosehearty, on the coast where the road from Fraserburgh curves west. Most travellers drive past without slowing. The ones who stop are usually the ones who already knew it was there.

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Image: Sagaciousphil | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pitsligo Castle: Six Hundred Years of Stone

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pitsligo began as a keep in 1424 - one tower, square or rectangular, built for a noble family in a country where a noble family without defences was a noble family with a short future. Over the next two centuries the keep became a castle and the castle became a courtyard residenc...

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Image: Stephen McKay | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pitsligo Castle: The Forbes Modifications

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sagaciousphil, CC BY-SA 3.0. It was the Forbes of Druminnor who gave Pitsligo most of its visible character. They modified the castle in the 1570s, building out from the original keep into a courtyard plan with substantial domestic buildings. Their carved arms above the gateway, paired with the Erskines, mar...

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Image: Sagaciousphil | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pitsligo Castle: Saved by a Publisher

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0. The story of Pitsligo's modern preservation has an unexpected protagonist. Around the same time as McKean's visit, the castle was consolidated by Douglas Forrest, a firm of Scottish architects, for Malcolm Forbes - the American publisher of Forbes magazine. Forbes, who claimed Sc...

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Image: Anne Burgess | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pitsligo Castle: What Remains

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tom Parnell from Scottish Borders, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pitsligo is open to anyone who walks up to it. There are no ticket booths, no opening hours, no audio guides. The castle sits in a field above the coast, its walls weathered to the colour of bone, and a small virtual tour exists online for those who want to see what they would ot...

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Image: Tom Parnell from Scottish Borders, Scotland | CC BY-SA 2.0