Scotland · Restored
Guthrie Castle
Guthrie Castle is a castle and country house near the village of Guthrie in Angus, Scotland. It comprises a 15th-century tower house linked to a 19th-century gabled country house, with much of the visible fabric resulting from the mid-19th-century expansion. The building is a private residence that was restored to its 19th-century condition in the late 20th century.
Its prime
1850
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1850
What Guthrie Castle looked like in its prime.
Guthrie Castle presents a tall rectangular sandstone tower linked on its right to a lower, gabled 19th-century house. The tower rises several storeys with a projecting corbelled parapet and a small square stair-turret capped by a pointed roof and weather vane. Walls are reddish sandstone ashlar; roofs are steeply pitched slate with tall chimneys. Windows are mullioned and rectangular. The setting is open lawn and parkland with mature trees and a gravel approach; at its prime the complex appears complete and continuously roofed.
Its story
The story of Guthrie Castle.
Sir David Guthrie's Tower, 1468
Guthrie Castle began as a tower house raised in 1468 by Sir David Guthrie (1435–1500), who served the Scottish crown as Treasurer and Lord Justice-General. It stands in the village that bears the family's name, ten kilometres east of Forfar in Angus. In time the Guthries built a house beside the old tower, and keep and dwelling stood as separate neighbours.
David Bryce Joins Tower and House, 1848
In 1848 the two buildings were linked, in a baronial-style expansion designed by the architect David Bryce — the work that gives the castle much of its present character. The historic keep stayed with the family that built it until 1983, when the death of Colonel Ivan Guthrie ended more than five centuries of Guthrie ownership.
After the Guthries, 1984–2017
In 1984 the castle was bought by Daniel S. Peña, Sr., an American businessman, who restored it to its 19th-century condition and built a golf course on the estate in 1994–95. From 2003 the castle and grounds were opened to the public for wedding parties, corporate functions and group bookings, but in 2017, following a fraud investigation, the owners closed the doors again and the castle reverted to a private house. It has been a Category B listed building since 1971.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1850.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Guthrie Castle, including the full exterior approach. 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 Guthrie Castle.
The families that held Guthrie Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Guthrie
Held by the Guthries from 1468, when Sir David Guthrie built the tower, until 1983.
From the archive
Guthrie 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. 182. — Guthrie Castle. Plans.
1889 · MacGibbon & Ross, vol. 3 (1889)
Public domain
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