Abergairn Castle is a ruined

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

, dating from the 17th century, about one mile north of

Ballater Ballater (, ) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the River Dee, immediately east of the Cairngorm Mountains. Situated at an elevation of , Ballater is a centre for hikers and known for its spring water, once said to cure scrofula. ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

.Coventry Martin (1997) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p48 It is built on the top of an isolated

kame A kame, or ''knob'', is a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the g ...

, at the north-east of the entrance to Glen Gairn.

History

The castle was the property of the Farquharsons. It was built in 1614, possibly as a hunting lodge. The name is of Gaelic derivation, meaning "the confluence of the Gairn", indicating its location near the confluence of River Gairn and River Dee.

Structure

Abergairn castle was a tower house of which little other than the

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

remains. It was small, probably having three or four storeys with a garret. The main tower survives only to a maximum height of 4 feet; a round tower to the north-west reaches to 10 feet.

References

{{Authority control Castles in Aberdeenshire