Scotland · Ruin
Macduff's Castle
MacDuff's Castle is a ruined medieval castle near East Wemyss in Fife, Scotland, associated with the MacDuff earls and later held by the Wemyss, Livingstone and Colville families. The surviving fabric records a 14th-century tower, a 16th-century tower and a 16th-century gatehouse range, with later 17th-century defensive walls. The site sits on a grassy cliff above exposed sandstone ledges on the Fife coast.
Its prime
1637
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1637
The shape it held in its prime.
A pair of rectangular stone tower blocks—one four storeys, one five storeys—linked by a lower gatehouse range and enclosing a small courtyard, all built of local reddish-brown sandstone. The group stands atop a grassy coastal bank above an exposed horizontal sandstone ledge at the shore, with surrounding low curtain walls of the period. At its prime the towers and gatehouse presented vertical facades of coursed stone with narrow window openings, forming a compact two-tower silhouette above the cliff.
Its story
The story of Macduff's Castle.
Tradition holds that a castle was first built here by the MacDuff Mormaers, or Earls, of Fife — the most powerful family in Fife in the Middle Ages — in the 11th century, at the time of King Macbeth, though nothing survives from that period. The Wemyss family, descendants of the MacDuffs, owned the property from the 14th century and built the earliest part of the present castle: Edward I of England stayed with Sir Michael Wemyss in 1304, but when Wemyss joined Robert the Bruce, Edward ordered the castle destroyed.
After the Wemyss family moved to nearby Wemyss Castle the property passed to the Livingstones, and in 1530 to the Colvilles, who built a second tower to the south-west and enclosed a courtyard with a gatehouse. Sir John Wemyss of West Wemyss bought the castle back from Lord Colville of Culross in 1637, and in 1651 the lands of East and West Wemyss were united as a single barony.
The ruins comprised a four-storey 14th-century tower and a five-storey 16th-century tower joined by a gatehouse range, with 17th-century walls containing gun loops. Fife County Council demolished the eastern tower in 1967 after a child was injured falling from it, and sea erosion destroyed the shoreline dovecote in the 1970s. A Scheduled Ancient Monument, the castle remains the property of the Wemyss Estate.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1637.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Macduff's Castle — including 1 interior: enclosed courtyard. 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 Macduff's Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1637 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Macduff's Castle.
The families that held Macduff's Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
MacDuff
Traditionally the site of an 11th-century castle of the MacDuff Earls of Fife, the most powerful family in medieval Fife, though nothing survives from that period.
Wemyss
Owned by the Wemyss family, descendants of the MacDuffs, from the 14th century; bought back by Sir John Wemyss in 1637 and still part of the Wemyss Estate.
Livingstone
Held by the Livingstones after the Wemyss family moved to Wemyss Castle, until the Colvilles took over in 1530.
Colville
Held from 1530 by the Colvilles, who built the second tower and gatehouse range, until Lord Colville of Culross sold it back to the Wemyss in 1637.
