Scotland · Partial ruin
Castle of Rattray
The Castle of Rattray was a medieval strongpoint on Castlehill beside a sheltered harbour on the Aberdeenshire coast. Its timber motte was replaced by a compact stone hall-house after the early 14th century; that stone castle survived into the early 18th century before being buried by shifting sands. Archaeological excavation has revealed its rectangular footprint, thick walls and subsidiary mural buildings beneath the present grassy mound.
Its prime
1720
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1720
What Castle of Rattray looked like in its prime.
A compact, narrow rectangular stone hall-house roughly 20 by 6.5 metres set atop an oval, grassy mound (Castlehill) overlooking a sheltered estuary and harbour. Thick rubble masonry perimeter walls enclose a central two-storey range divided into a larger central room and two smaller end rooms, with evidence of small slit windows and a possible external forestair to the first floor. Two low mural buildings abut the inner face of the curtain; the harbour-side entrance faces the inlet and sandy flats.
Its story
The story of Castle of Rattray.
The Castle of Rattray began as a late 12th- or early 13th-century defensive motte on Castlehill, protecting Starny Keppie Harbour and Rattray village on the Aberdeenshire coast, one of W. Douglas Simpson's nine "castles of the Knuckle". Between 1214 and 1233 William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan, built upon the motte, and in the 13th century Rattray was the principal seat of the Comyn Earls of Buchan.
The Comyn castle was destroyed in the summer of 1308 in the Harrying of Buchan, when the Comyn lands were bloodily burned after John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, was beaten at the Battle of Barra. A stronger stone castle, a compact hall-house with thick walls, replaced the timber one, and in 1563 Mary, Queen of Scots declared Rattray a royal burgh to end disputes over its superiority between William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal, and George Hay, 7th Earl of Erroll.
The stone castle survived until 1720, when a sand storm engulfed it along with Rattray village. It was never dug out: excavation has traced its rectangular footprint, thick walls and subsidiary mural buildings beneath the grassy mound that covers the site to this day.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1720.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Castle of Rattray, including 6 interiors: central hall (interior), west end chamber, east end chamber and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Castle of Rattray.
The families that held Castle of Rattray for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Comyn
Principal seat of the Comyn Earls of Buchan from the early 13th century until the Harrying of Buchan in 1308.
