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Cluny Castle

Chapel (Period Unassigned), Country House (Period Unassigned), Motte (Medieval)(Possible), Tower House (Medieval)

Site Name Cluny Castle

Classification Chapel (Period Unassigned), Country House (Period Unassigned), Motte (Medieval)(Possible), Tower House (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Cluny Castle Policies; 'lie Peillis'; Clunie Castle

Canmore ID 18066

Site Number NJ61SE 4

NGR NJ 68900 12743

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18066

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

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

Recording Your Heritage Online

Cluny, 1604, (?)I Bell. As fantastical a baronial pile as can be found in eastern Scotland, retaining within itself a Z-plan

castle represented by the western drum tower - with rebuilt top - the great north-west tower and the rectangular block between - all refaced in silver-grey granite and refenestrated.

There is something possessed about John Smith's extraordinary rebuilding, 1836-40. This is particularly evident when contemplating the principal frontage: the sledge-hammer symmetry, the repetition of heavy hood-mouldings over all but the ground-floor windows, the sheer height of the towers, the vigour of the machicolation (in fact, deep corbels) and the boldness of the crenellations. The interior is Graeco-Renaissance, in particular the octagonal entrance hall and splendid first-floor corridor. The great staircase is colossal, c.1867, with carved wooden balustrade-panels; the drawing room has rich plasterwork and one of the tower rooms has a tent-like ceiling of pleated silk dating, apparently, from the late 1860s.

Long back wings enclose a court with service rooms (there were '137ft of corridors and 14ft of spiral staircase between the kitchen table and the dinner table'); there is also a choice neo-Perpendicular Chapel, 1870-3, restored after a fire, 1926, by George Bennett Mitchell, with apse and freestone tracery, including a rose window.

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 4.00 68900 12743

Cluny Castle [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1973.

NJ61SE 4.01 NJ 68540 12444 West Lodge

NJ61SE 4.02 NJ 69584 12073 South Lodge

NJ61SE 4.03 NJ 69217 13032 East Lodge

NJ61SE 4.04 NJ 68532 12038 Cluny Home Farm

NJ61SE 4.05 NJ 68839 12855 Stable Block

NJ61SE 4.06 NJ 69236 12709 Walled Garden

NJ61SE 4.07 NJ 69401 12703 Gardener's Cottage

NJ61SE 4.08 NJ 69644 12257 Sylvan Cottage

NJ61SE 4.09 NJ 69293 12772 Icehouse

NJ61SE 4.10 NJ 6854 1219 Kennels and Keeper's Cottage

NJ61SE 4.11 NJ 6905 1205 Hamewith, steading

(NJ 6890 1275). Cluny Castle was an extremely interesting example of the Z-plan construction before its incorporation in the present mansion, built in 1836-40. A fire in 1926 revealed what remains of the old castle. The vaulted basement of the NW tower survives intact, and a portion of its outer wall, with a splayed granite plinth. In the present building is an armorial stone bearing the date 1604 which may be accepted as that of the erection or completion of the castle.

An old drawing by Hullmandel, made before its destruction, shows the castle on a mound, possibly a motte - the 'lie Peillis' of Cluny, recorded in 1535. The Statistical Account (OSA, 1791-9) mentions that the castle was protected by a wet moat.

W D Simpson 1949; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; Statistical Account (OSA) 1791-9.

Cluny Castle, incorporating remains of old Cluny Castle, as described by Simpson (1949). No remains of the 1604 castle are visible externally, and there is no trace of a moat.

Visited by OS (RL) 7 February 1968.

(Additional references cited).

NMRS, MS/712/57.

Architecture Notes

EXTERNAL REFERENCE:

Soane Museum Drawings - Adam Collection

Plans:

Measured and drawn by Fenton Wyness 1920-26 and stored in Aberdeen (see architectural catalogue) - complete survey

SRO

Estimate for addition to Clunie Castle and Kitchen Offices.

Cost #3338 11 2

[1790] GD 18/4965

SRO

Description of building and finishing an sddition to Clunie Castle, Aberdeen

[1790] GD 18/4965

1760 House of Cluny

Copy, Sir Archd Grant to John Gordon of Cluny at Fochabers; Monymusk, 24 July. On a survey by himself and "friend" who wanted to buy the estate of Cluny, and Gordon is asking far more than he would offer, "Especially as the House is such, tho' Grand for the Old Taste of Castles, as would not Do for those Accustomed to Genteel Modern Habitations and Manner of Life, to which he and his lady have been Long Accumstomed, but would cost more to pull Down than the materialls (sic) it could furnish it would be worth": urges a compromise. (Gordon refuses).

SRO/GD345/1166/3

Activities

Photographic Survey (April 1955)

Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1954.

Photographic Survey (April 1955)

Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in April 1955.

References

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