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Plain rubble built tower dating to the 16th century, originally the fortified home of the Forbeses of Corgarff. Built in 1537, it was damaged in 1571 when a party of Gordons from Auchindoun Castle (NJ33NW0012) burned the castle (a deed told in the ballad 'Edom o' Gordon'). In 1715 the Earl of Mar encamped here before raising the Jacobite standard at Braemar. The castle was remodelled after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion and the Battle of Culloden when it was turned into a soldiers' barracks. At this time new wings were appended to each gable wall (one as bakehouse/ brewhouse, the other as guardroom and prison), surrounded by a loop-holed curtain wall, rectangular in plan with a salient on all four faces. In 1827-31 a captain, subaltern and 56 men were stationed here to check the whisky smuggling in Strathdon. The castle was restored by D.O.E. in 1966. In December 2007, a watching brief was carried out by Kirkdale Archaeology over the excavation of a small trench against the exterior southwest corner of the curtain wall. The excavation aimed to locate the inlet for the castle well shown on an 18th century plan. No evidence was found of the inlet, but the excavation revealed the foundations of the 18th century star-shaped curtain wall.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)