Scotland · Still standing
Brodie Castle
Brodie Castle is a Z-plan tower house completed in 1567 near Forres in Moray, Scotland, later remodelled in the 19th century in Scots Baronial style. It retains a 16th-century central keep with two five-storey corner towers and a range of domestic wings. The property and designed grounds are owned by the National Trust for Scotland and are open to the public.
First raised
1567
Its prime
1845
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1845
What Brodie Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact Z-plan stone tower house and mansion range of pale ashlar sandstone with a central rectangular keep and two opposing five-storey corner towers, one with a tall conical-roofed turret; slate steep roofs, stepped gables, and tall chimneys; regular sash-and-case windows in the main ranges and lower single-storey service wing to the right; broad mown lawn and gravel approach in front with wooded parkland behind; complete and in regular domestic use at its prime.
Its story
The story of Brodie Castle.
The Brodie Lands and the Tower House of 1567
The family's association with the ground north of Brodie, some three and a half miles west of Forres in Moray, is widely accepted to reach back to about 1160, when King Malcolm IV is believed to have given the land to the Brodies. The castle raised on it came four centuries later: the Z-plan tower house, a central keep with a five-storey tower set at each of two opposing corners, was completed in 1567.
Partly Burnt by Lewis Gordon, 1645
In 1645 the tower house was partially burnt by Lewis Gordon of Clan Gordon, the 3rd Marquess of Huntly. The fire did not carry the whole building. The 16th-century core came through it and survives well preserved.
From William Burn's Baronial Scheme to the National Trust
In 1824 the architect William Burn was commissioned to convert the tower house into a mansion in the Scots Baronial style. His additions were only partially completed, and around 1845 what had been built was remodelled by James Wylson.
Ninian Brodie of Brodie, the last member of the family to live in the castle, died in 2003. The building had been listed Category A on 26 January 1971. The castle and its surrounding policies, whose designed landscape is entered on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland and which hold a national daffodil collection, are owned by the National Trust for Scotland and open to the public throughout the year. The ancient Pictish monument known as Rodney's Stone stands in the grounds.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1845.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Brodie Castle, including 3 interiors: central keep, ground-floor chamber, room with 17th–19th-century ornate ceiling, private wing lodging interior. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Brodie Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1845, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Castle Siege
Play Castle Siege at Brodie Castle.
A strategy game played on Brodie Castle’s real ground plan: the same surveyed walls shown in the archive below. Post your finite garrison on the battlements between assaults, then hold out as rams, siege towers, trebuchets and sappers arrive in ever-worse waves.
Sign in free to see the garrison muster. One castle costs 150 Clan Coins and is yours forever.
Sign in to take command →Whose castle
Clans who held Brodie Castle.
The families that held Brodie Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Brodie
Clan Brodie's land since around 1160 by reputed grant of Malcolm IV; the family completed the tower house in 1567 and remained until Ninian Brodie of Brodie, the last family resident, died in 2003.
From the archive
Brodie Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
Fig. 648. — Brodie Castle. East Side of Old Portion.
1892 · MacGibbon & Ross, vol. 4 (1892)
Public domain
