Spring Creich Castle North Fife Scotland



Tour Scotland Spring 4K travel video of Creich Castle on visit to North Fife. The Earl MacDuff chose this site for one of his defensive towers. Kinsmen of the Leddel and Beaton families were installed as Constable of Creich Castle. Farmers of Creich family stayed on the farm to continue to produce the food required by the favorite royal castle of Falklands. The Laird of Creich, Beaton by name, had an older brother who was the Archbishop of St. Andrews nearby. The third son of Laird Creich, Davie Beaton, went to work for his uncle, the Archbishop of St. Andrews. This Scottish Castle is located in a quiet hollow surrounded with hills, next to the castle is a private dwelling built in the eighteenth century of stones from the castle. On the same road and near the castle are ruins of an ancient church and graveyard.

Although the tower house has been ruinous since at least the late 19th century, the building still stands to nearly its full height. The exterior walls of whin rubble with ashlar dressing survive. Much of the interior structure has been lost, but many architectural features can still be seen, such as window and door frames, gun loops, heavily corbelled cornice for a parapet walk over the stair tower and corbelled angle on the south side. The precise date of construction of the existing tower is currently unclear. A charter of 1553 records the presence of a tower at Creich in 1553, but the architectural style of the tower suggests a later date of construction or alteration. There is also a documentary reference to a Creich Castle in the 13th century, although it is unclear how this relates to the surviving remains.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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