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Remains of a castle. The nucleus is a tower-house thought to have been built circa 1424, of which two storeys survive the third having been demolished in circa 1700. The east wall has largely fallen, revealing vaulted hall. There is a straight stair in the thickness of the wall from the ground to first floor, with spiral stairs, now gutted, above. In the latter half of the 16th Century the tower-house was incorporated with a large quadrangular mansion which occupies a position near the west end of the south front. It has a round tower on exterior of the northeast angle and a square porch tower on inner angle. An entrance transe sits in the centre of the north range. This mansion, which encloses a courtyard, seems never to have been completed. There are vague traces of a possible ditch to the west and south. Large walled forecourt with coped walls, outer gate on the centre of the W side with a semi-circular arch with edge roll moulding and date panel 1656. An extensive walled garden lies to north. Built by family of Forbes of Pitsligo, but confiscated after the 1745 rebellion, the property was sold to the Gardens of Troup and subsequently was left to ruin. It was later repurchased by the Forbes family, but not repaired. All of the buildings are in a ruinous condition. There are Royal coat-of-arms panels dated 1579 and 1603, and a Pitsligo arms panel dated 1665. The property was acquired by American descendant Malcolm Forbes in 1988. After his death, it was presented to the N.E.S.P.T. by his son. A watching brief was carried out in April 1998 on excavation for a foundation pit for the concrete base of props needed to control the bulging of the south wall of the tower. This recorded a probably spread of builders material from the construction or alteration of one phase of the castle. A geophysical survey was carried out over three areas around the castle remains in August 2008 by Orkney College Geophysical Unit (for MAS) to determine buried garden features. The resistance survey detected several anomalies that appear to relate to the possible garden features, although many of them are ephemeral. The clearest results were recorded in Areas B and C where the locations of walls and possible paths were identified. In September 2009 six evaluation trenches were excavated in the garden based on the survey results. Three pit features were found in Trench 4, beneath the formal garden layout, suggesting that they may belong to the pre-17th century garden or relating to the earlier stages of the castle. In April 2010, a watching brief was undertaken by MAS over the excavation of a series of five test pits evaluating the North range of the castle to assess the depth of wall foundations. A test pit inside the courtyard revealed a stone drain running along the wall below a series of capstones.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)