Gordon Castle

Gordon Castle is located near Fochabers in Moray, Scotland. Historically known as the Bog-of-Gight or Bog o'Gight, it was the principal seat of the Dukes of Gordon. Following 18th-century redevelopment, it became one of the largest country houses ever built in Scotland, although much has since been demolished.

Gordon Castle

History
Engraving of the castle by James Fittler in Scotia Depicta published 1804

The original castle was built by George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly in the 1470s and enlarged by his grandson and George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly.[1] An inventory of the contents from November 1648 mentions lavish beds and a "hen house", a parrot cage in the long gallery.[2]

Architect John Adam was commissioned, alongside the French architect Abraham Roumieu, to redesign the castle in 1764 but this did not come to fruition. Eventually the commission fell to the lesser-known Edinburgh architect, John Baxter, who rebuilt it in 1769 for Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon. The central four storey block incorporated a six-storey medieval tower called the Bog-of-Gight, and was flanked by a pair of two-storey wings. The main facade was 568 feet (173 metres) long. Following the deaths of the 7th and 8th Dukes within a decade of one another the Gordon Estates of 180,000 acres (73,000 hectares) were put up for sale by the 9th Duke to pay the enormous death duties. The majority of the contents of the castle were sold and most of the castle was demolished, but the 16th-century tower of Bog-of-Gight and one of the wings—now a detached medium sized country house in its own right—survive.

References
  1. Charles McKean, The Scottish Chateau (Stroud, 2001), pp. 214-6.
  2. Michael Pearce, 'Beds of ‘Chapel’ Form in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Inventories: The Worst Sort of Bed', Regional Furniture, 27 (2013), pp. 84-5: National Records of Scotland GD44/49/13/1.


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