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Site of a castle, of which no remains are evident. A former ancestral seat of the Barclay de Tolly family, one of the oldest families in Scotland. Also site of farmstead and farmhouse, now demolished. The older part of the farmhouse (Mains of Cullen) had the appearance of having been an appendage of the castle due to the thickness of the walls and being built of clay. When visited by OS in 1963, the farmer was unable to give the date of the buildings erection. Stones which bore the initials VB and EH (presumably Walter Barclay and Elizabeth Hay) on the southeast and northeast corners of the farmhouse which had been noted in the 19th century were not visible at the time of the OS's visit. However set in the southeast and southwest corners of the farmhouse at eaves level were two small stones with coat-of-arms. A fire in 2001 damaged the remaining upstanding buildings of the farm. Although the external walls were left standing to two-thirds of their original height, they were in an extremely dangerous state and the building was subject to a demolition order. A new house was proposed for the site, and in advance of this a programme of archaeological works, carried out by MAS in 2003. It was not possible to undertake a full measured survey, but a limited photographic survey was undertaken while the remaining structure was demolished. It seems unlikely that the farmhouse formed a part of the original castle as a great variety of pieces of architectural masonry of varying dates were incorporated into its structure. Six evaluation trenches were also excavated in the walled garden area to the east of the farmhouse, but no archaeological features or finds were evident. A watching brief 11 January 2007 (NJ 7319 6367) on foundations of a new house adjacent to the castle site recorded no archaeological features or finds.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)