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Tillycairn Castle

Tower House (Medieval)

Site Name Tillycairn Castle

Classification Tower House (Medieval)

Canmore ID 18063

Site Number NJ61SE 1

NGR NJ 66483 11426

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18063

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Aberdeenshire
  • Parish Cluny
  • Former Region Grampian
  • Former District Gordon
  • Former County Aberdeenshire

Recording Your Heritage Online

Tillycairn, c.1550. Substantial four-storey-and-attic, harled, L-plan country house with rounded angles and fine stair-tower in re-entrant angle topped with bold ashlar caphouse. Angle turrets on strong corbels. Almost hidden from the main road, on an elevated site, this is a most rewarding building, particularly in the massing of windows and turrets on the south front, or the interest inspired by the view into the re-entrant. Although referred to as a 'bantam cock', Tillycairn is one of the central Aberdeenshire chateaux whose sheer scale demands a different response than that required of pocket lairds' houses in remoter parts (such as Auchinachie, Forgue). These are big-league players. Ruinous by 1772; restored, 1980-4, Ian Begg, for David Lumsden, whose last act of restoration was to add some heraldry (cf Monymusk).

Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

Archaeology Notes

NJ61SE 1 66483 11426

(NJ 6648 1143) Tillycairn Castle (NR)

OS 6" map, (1959)

Tillycairn Castle is a fine example of the L-plan, probably built about 1550. It measures 41 1/2 feet by 37 feet, with a circular staircase tower in the re-entrant. The main building was four storeys high, the wing being one storey higher. Macfarlane (1906-8) records that the castle was ruinous in 1722. In 1921 the building was in good repair despite being used as a hen-house.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; W Macfarlane 1906-8; W D Simpson 1921; W D Simpson 1949.

Tillycairn Castle, as described, illustrated and planned by Simpson (1921; 1949).

Visited by OS (RL) 5 February 1968.

P Yeoman: watching brief for SDD March 1980.

(Newspaper references cited).

NMRS, MS/712/57.

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