Fyvie Castle

Fyvie Castle
Near Turriff in Aberdeenshire
Coordinates	57°26′36″N 2°23′42″W / 57.4433°N 2.3949°W / 57.4433; -2.3949
Site information
Website	Castle Website
Site history
In use	13th Century

Fyvie Castle is a castle in the village of Fyvie, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

The earliest parts of Fyvie Castle date from the 13th century – some sources claim it was built in 1211 by William the Lion. Fyvie was the site of an open-air court held by Robert the Bruce, and Charles I lived there as a child for 4 years. Following the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, it ceased to be a royal stronghold as it was passed to Henry Preston as a reward from Robert iii.^{[clarification needed]}. Instead, it fell into the possession of five successive families – Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon and Forbes-Leith – each of whom added a new tower to the castle. The oldest of these, the Preston Tower (located on the far right as one faces the main facade of Fyvie), dates to between 1390 and 1433. The impressive Seton tower forms the entrance, and was erected in 1599 by Alexander Seton. He commissioned the great wheel staircase several years later. The Gordon Tower followed in 1777 , and the Leith in 1890.

Inside, the castle stronghold features a great wheel stair, a display of original arms and armour, and a collection of portraits, from artists such as Henry Raeburn, Pompeo Batoni and Thomas Gainsborough.

Manus O'Cahan and Montrose fought a successful minor battle against the Covenant Army at Fyvie Castle on 28 October 1644. The battlefield was added to the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland in 2011.^[1] Anne Halkett stayed at the castle from 1650 to 1652 with the Countess of Dunfermline, she treated wounded soldiers and the illnesses of local people, and negotiated with the English major of a company of Commonwealth soldiers, and with three Colonels, Lilburne, Fitts, and Overton.^[2]

The grounds and adjoining Loch Fyvie were landscaped in the 18th century by Col. William Gordon.

The Scottish industrialist Alexander Leith (later Baron Leith of Fyvie) bought the castle in 1885. His descendants sold it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1984.

To the East, there is a walled garden which is currently a garden where Scottish fruits are cultivated.^[3] There is evidence for two other walled gardens closer to the castle itself to its West and South.^[4] The one to the west appears on an estate plan of 1768.^[5]

The castle (like many places in Scotland) has ghostlore associated with it.^[6] A story is told that in 1920 during renovation work the skeleton of a woman was discovered behind a bedroom wall. On the day the remains were laid to rest in Fyvie cemetery, the castle residents started to be plagued by strange noises and unexplained happenings. Fearing he had offended the dead woman, the Laird of the castle had the skeleton exhumed and replaced behind the bedroom wall, at which point the haunting ceased. It is said that there is a secret room in the south-west corner of the castle that must remain sealed lest anyone entering meet with disaster.^[7] It is unclear if this is the same room in which the skeleton was found. There is also an indelible blood stain, two ghosts and two curses associated with this place.^[8]

One of the curses has been attributed to the prophetic laird, Thomas the Rhymer. The curse is said to have been part of the mysterious three weeping stones. The curse decrees that until all three stones taken from the castle's boundary marks are brought together, the firstborn sons of the families who live at Fyvie will never inherit the castle. Only one weeping stone is known to exist and is kept at the castle. The other two have never been found, with one built into the castle walls and the other in the depths of the river Ythan.

The second curse involves a hidden room in the charter room. The curse is very specific: death to the lord of the castle and blindness to his wife if anyone disturbs it.

Fyvie Castle has featured in a number of British television programmes, such as Living TV's Most Haunted series 6.^[9] and stv's Castles of Scotland. The castle also played host of the setting of a children's gameshow on CBBC called Spook Squad in 2004. 2009 saw the publication of the children's fantasy novel, The Time-Tailor and the Fyvie Castle Witch Trials, written by Deborah Leslie. The castle was also featured in BBC documentary, Castle Ghosts of Scotland,^[10] narrated by Robert Hardy.

In recent years, the castle grounds have hosted a Fyvie Live music festival in the summer, which was headlined in 2011 by Beverley Knight and in 2012 by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, then following a gap of several years, by The Shires in 2017. Following the revival, it was announced that the event would take place again in 2018, with Ward Thomas as the headline act. in August 2024 it also hosted re-enactors from all over the country to bring a re-enactment of the battle of Fyvie 1644.

Today, the castle is open to tourists between April and October. It is also a wedding venue.

• Fyvie Castle – National Trust for Scotland
• Fyvie Castle Grounds Virtual Tour