Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 38 on 11/04/2008.

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Blazing a trail

CRAIGIEVAR CASTLE
Tel: +44 (0)1339 883 635
www.nts.org.uk
Almost Disney-esque in appearance, fairytale Craigievar Castle, all pink granite, multiple turrets, fanciful towers, gables, gargoyles and chimney stacks, was built in the 1600s by flamboyant Aberdeen merchant William Forbes, brother of the Bishop of Aberdeen. The seven storey castle has a musicians’ gallery, some of Scotland’s best crafted plasterwork ceilings which depict among other things, Roman emperors’ heads, and a hidden staircase. Craigievar’s charm made it an early tourist attraction and it attracted illustrious personages including Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and crowned heads of Europe.

NB. Craigievar is temporarily closed for conservation work, and will reopen in 2009 DRUM CASTLE Tel: +44 (0)1330 811 204 ww.nts.org.uk William de Irwyn was granted the charter of the Royal Forest of Drum by King Robert the Bruce in 1323. His family owned Drum Castle for the next 653 years until the last Laird, Henry Quentin Forbes Irvine, bequeathed it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1975.

It is a welcoming castle. The attic houses a maternity roost for more than 200 pipistrelle bats, a protected species, while the old tower basement shelters the hibernating males.

FYVIE CASTLE
Tel: +44(01651 891 266
ww.nts.org.uk
Phantoms and secret chambers, it’s what you expect of old castles really. Fyvie Castle doesn’t disappoint, it has both.

One of the castle’s phantoms is said to be Lilias Drummond, second wife of t.....

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By Gilly Pickup

Section : Scottish Castles

Page number : 24