Blairfindy Castle

Blairfindy Castle is an L-plan tower house, dating from the 16th century, around 6.5 miles (10.5 km)north of Tomintoul, and west of the River Livet. The tower was a hunting seat of the earls of Huntly.

The building is derelict.

The first owners of Blairfindy were Grants, but the present castle was built by the Gordons, having been completed by John Gordon in 1564. It was after it passed to another branch of the family in 1586 that it became a hunting-seat for the Huntly earls.

It is close to the site of the Battle of Glenlivet where the Earl of Argyll’s Protestant army was defeated by the much smaller army of the Earl of Huntly and the Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll, in 1594.

Although the castle is broadly L-plan, its wing project slightly to allow defence of both sides. A corbelled angle turret arose on the other side.

In the re-entrant angle is the arched entrance doorway. Above, for its defence, is a heavily corbelled projection, with machicolations to allow missiles to be dropped, while to the side there is a shot-hole. On a panel above the doorway are the quartered arms of the Gordons, with the date 1586 and the initials I.G. and H.G. A semicircular stair tower rises above the doorway in the re-entrant angle.

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