Clan Gordon Castle Aberdeenshire Scotland

Tour Scotland wee travel video of the Clan Gordon Castle on ancestry visit to Aberdeenshire. Fyvie was once a royal stronghold, one of a chain of fortresses throughout medieval Scotland. From 1390, following the Battle of Otterburn, five successive families created probably the finest example of Scottish Baronial architecture. An old tradition claims that these clan families; Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon and Leith, each built one of Fyvie's five towers. The oldest part dates from the 13th century. Lord Seton, the 4th Earl of Dunfermline, died in exile in 1694 with his possessions forfeit after taking part in the rebellion of 1689. In 1733 the Crown sold Fyvie to William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen who required another seat for his third wife Anne and her children because Haddo House was due to be inherited by his son by his second wife. From 1770 to 1840 Anne’s son William Gordon carried out sweeping changes, Fyvie remained in various lines of the Gordon family until Sir Maurice Duff-Gordon, a notorious spendthrift, had to sell the castle and it’s contents in 1889. A story is told that in 1920 during renovation work the skeleton of a woman was discovered behind a bedroom wall. On the day the remains were laid to rest in Fyvie cemetery, the castle residents started to be plagued by strange noises and unexplained happenings. Fearing he had offended the dead woman, the Laird of the castle had the skeleton exhumed and replaced behind the bedroom wall, at which the haunting ceased All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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