Scotland · Ruin
Kildrummy Castle
Kildrummy Castle is a large medieval fortress near Kildrummy in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, built from the mid-13th century and extensively occupied through the late medieval period. It is notable for a shield-shaped plan with multiple independent towers, a tall keep called the Snow Tower, and extensive earthwork defenses; the site is now a scheduled monument cared for by Historic Environment Scotland.
Its prime
1507
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1507
The shape it held in its prime.
A shield-shaped stone castle set on pastureland above a steep ravine, its flat face looking over the drop while the opposite side comes to a defended point. The plan includes multiple independent towers of varying shapes, a taller central keep called the Snow Tower in a French manner, and a massive twin-towered gatehouse at the pointed end. Thick grey masonry curtain walls surround inner and outer wards, with visible lower-storey walls and extensive earthen banks and a dry moat encircling the site.
Its story
The story of Kildrummy Castle.
Gilbert de Moravia probably built Kildrummy in the mid-13th century, its siting perhaps chosen for the Grampian Mounth trackway crossings, particularly the Elsick Mounth and Cryne Corse Mounth. Shield-shaped in plan with independent towers, a massive twin-towered gatehouse and a French-style keep called the Snow Tower, it became the seat of the Earls of Mar and one of the most extensive 13th-century castles surviving in eastern Scotland.
The castle stood siege repeatedly: first in August–September 1306 in defence of Robert the Bruce's family — a fall that led to the executions of Nigel Bruce and many other Scots — and again in 1335 by David of Strathbogie, when Christina Bruce held off the attackers until her husband Sir Andrew Murray came to her rescue. In 1403–4 Alexander Stewart murdered Sir Malcolm Drummond, took his widow Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar, by force, and laid claim to Kildrummy and the earldom itself.
James IV granted the keeping of Kildrummy and its lands to Alexander Elphinstone, 1st Lord Elphinstone, and his wife Elizabeth Barlow in 1507, and it later passed from the Elphinstones to the Erskines; in 1645 Robert Farquharson of Invercauld kept the castle for the Earl of Mar. Abandoned in 1716 after the failure of the Jacobite Rising of 1715, it was given to the Ministry of Works in 1951 and is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1507.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Kildrummy Castle — including 1 interior: interior of the snow tower's principal chamber. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Kildrummy Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1507 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Kildrummy Castle.
The families that held Kildrummy Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Elphinstone
Granted the keeping of Kildrummy and its lands by James IV in 1507; the Elphinstones held it until it passed to the Erskines.
Held Kildrummy after the Elphinstones until its abandonment in 1716, following the failure of the Jacobite Rising of 1715.
