Aberdeen Castle

Aberdeen Castle was a late medieval fortification set on Castle Hill, a site known today as the Castlegate; blocks of flats now occupy the ground it stood on. The castle was surrendered to the English in 1295, and on 14 April 1296 Edward I arrived in Aberdeen and stayed in it, part of the campaign along Scotland's east coast that followed his defeat of the Scots.

The following year William Wallace defeated the English at Dunnottar Castle and marched his men on to Aberdeen, part of a campaign to reclaim the east coast from the English army. They found the English preparing to leave with an armada of one hundred ships. The speed of the march up from Dunnottar caught them unawares: at low tide the stranded ships were attacked in the harbour, the crew and soldiers were slaughtered, the cargo was seized and the ships were burned.

The English sheriff of Aberdeen, Sir Henry de Lazom, had been left in charge of the castle. In the chaos of the attack on the harbour he defected, declaring the castle in the name of the Scottish king, John Balliol.

Robert the Bruce and his men laid siege to the castle and massacred the English garrison to prevent its use by the troops of Edward II. It is thought that Bruce then had the castle and its fortifications slighted, as was his policy on recaptured castles, in June 1308, immediately following the Harrying of Buchan. It is said the Scots showed no mercy but "slew every man who fell into their hands. Edward I, indeed, had already set the example of executing his prisoners. It was not to be expected that the other side would fail to follow the same course."

English ships left Hartlepool on 10 July 1308 to help the garrison, and as of August 1308 Gilbert Pecche and the last troops were recorded as allowed to leave Aberdeen, an account thought unlikely to be accurate. Legend tells that the burgh's motto, Bon Accord, came from the password used to initiate Bruce's final push and the destruction of the castle.