Moniack Castle is a 16th-century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

located west of

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

, and just south of

Beauly Beauly ( ; ; ) is a village in Scotland's Highland (council area), Highland area, on the River Beauly, west of Inverness by the Far North Line, Far North railway line. The town is historically within Kilmorack Parish of the County of Inverness. ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

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 ...

. The castle was built in 1580 by members of the

Clan Fraser Clan Fraser is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands.Way, George and Squire, Romily. ''Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia''. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). Publis ...

. The castle is protected as a category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The

L-plan An L-plan castle is a castle or tower house in the shape of an L, typically built from the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, and other locations ...

castle has been altered many times since its construction. The

crenellated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...

parapet was added in 1804 and the castle was extended in the 1830s. The interiors include a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

chapel. In the grounds of the castle is the Balblair Stone, a

Pict PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics (both bitmapped and vector), and some limited text support, between Mac applications, an ...

ish symbol stone, carved with the figure of a man, which was moved here from

Kilmorack Kilmorack () is a small hamlet in Inverness-shire, in the Highlands of Scotland and now in the Highland Council area. It is situated on the north bank of the River Beauly, west of Beauly and west of the city of Inverness. The river is part of ...

in 1903. Moniack Castle is the only castle that still belongs to a branch of the Lovat Frasers. This branch is known as the Moniack Frasers and is the largest offshoot of the clan. It consists of over 250 descendants from the Hon. Alastair Fraser and Lady Sybil (née Grimston). Alastair was given the castle by his elder brother,

Simon Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat Major General Simon Joseph Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat and 3rd Baron Lovat, (25 November 1871 – 18 February 1933) was a Scottish aristocrat, British Army officer, landowner, politician and the 23rd Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat. Early lif ...

, in 1926. The castle is occupied by Rory Fraser and his family. Moniack Castle Winery was started by Philippa Fraser in 1979. It was based in the castle, and produced a range of fruit wines, liqueurs and mead. The winery closed in 2012. Moniack Mead is now produced by Lyme Bay Winery in Devon.

References

External links

Moniack Castle Wineries
{{coord, 57, 27, 35, N, 4, 24, 56, W, region:GB, display=title Clan Fraser Castles in Highland (council area) Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed castles in Scotland