This castle was built in 1590 by John Gordon of Cairnburrow when he married Helen Carnegie. Many of the stones used were hauled from the burned Kildrummy Castle.
This castle is managed by Historic Scotland, so it is well maintained, but it is not a manned site. To enter the castle, you park your car and wander though an odd, little gate designed to keep sheep in a pasture. Through some of our friends walked through a flock of sheep, we just walked through a grassy field with signs that sheep had once been there (some patches of wool and other deposits).
You have to walk all the way around the castle to the far side before finding the large entry door. The bottom floor was dark and damp, but the upper floors were bright (mostly because of the missing roof).
We enjoyed wandering this small, 'Z-shaped' castle. We had the entire area to ourselves, except for a few minutes when a young couple stopped and took a few pictures.
Some people mentioned that the door up the stairs was locked when they visited, but we were pleased to be able to go up to the very top floors to see the watch towers and more residential rooms.
Abigail wanted to see out the window. When I lifted her up, she spotted Daddy in the room across the castle and yelled out, "Daddy, what are you doing?"
Take a look at the rest of our pictures in our photo album: Glenbuchat Castle - July 2010.
I like your reference to sheep deposits. Nice. ;)
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