Findlater Castle On Visit To Coast Of Moray Firth Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Findlater Castle on ancestry visit to the coast of Moray Firth. The first historical reference to the castle is from 1246. King Alexander III of Scotland repaired this castle in the 1260s in preparation for an invasion by King Haakon IV of Norway. The Vikings took and held the castle for some time. The castle remains that are still there are from the 14th century rebuilding, when the castle was redesigned based on the Rosslyn Castle model. King James V of Scotland visited Findlater in November 1535 after a pilgrimage to Tain. In September 1562 Mary, Queen of Scots sent an army equipped with artillery from Dunbar Castle to besiege Findlater, which was held against her by John Gordon of Findlater, a son of the Earl of Huntly. When Mary was nearby on 20 September, she had sent her trumpeter messenger to deliver the castle to the captain of her guard, but he was refused. The previous Laird of Findlater, an Ogilvy, had been a Master of Household to Mary of Guise. He lost his inheritance following misconduct with his mother in law and making a plan to imprison his father in a cellar to deprive him of sleep and drive him insane to obtain his lands. After his father's death his mother married John Gordon, who then took possession of the castle and lands, and promptly imprisoned her. In October the Earl of Huntly sent Mary the keys of Findlater and Auchindoun, but she was suspicious of the low status of the messenger. The surname Findlater was first found in Banffshire, Gaelic: Siorrachd Bhanbh, former Scottish county located in the northeasterly Grampian region of Scotland, now of divided between the Council Areas of Moray and Aberdeenshire, where they held a family seat from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D. Findlater name has been written Findlater, Finlater, Finlator, Finlaytor, Findlayter and many more. Alexander Findlater, aged 39, a labourer, arrived in South Australia in 1856 aboard the ship Amazon; William Findlater settled in Charleston, South Carolina, America, in 1796 All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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