Aberdeenshire’s Best-Kept Secret: A Kingdom of 300 Castles

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Most visitors land in Edinburgh, chase the A9 north to Skye, and fly home never knowing an entire castle kingdom was waiting two hours up the road. Aberdeenshire has more castles than any other county in Scotland — over 300 of them, scattered across fertile farmland, coastal cliffs, and granite moorland. Some are grand National Trust properties with a tearoom and a gift shop. Others are private ruins standing alone in a field, seen only by sheep and the odd passing walker.

Once you see it, you’ll wonder why nobody told you sooner.

Why Aberdeenshire Has So Many Castles

The answer is in the land, and the money it made. Aberdeenshire’s fertile farmland made it one of Scotland’s wealthiest regions, and medieval landowners built to show power, control trade routes, and protect what was theirs.

The local granite did the rest. Hard, enduring, and lying almost everywhere underfoot, it gave builders the perfect material for fortifications built to outlast their owners by centuries. The result is Scotland’s greatest concentration of castles — roughly one for every 750 people in the county.

Out of this came a distinctive style: Scots Baronial. Round towers, corbelled turrets, stepped gables, crowstepped rooflines. Once you learn to spot it, you’ll see it everywhere in Aberdeenshire, from grand country houses down to small farmhouse towers that have stood since the 1400s.

Craigievar Castle — The Pink Tower That Wasn’t Always Pink

Craigievar is unlike anything else in Scotland, and the story behind it is better than the postcard. It was begun around 1576 by the Mortimer family, then bought unfinished in 1610 by William Forbes, an Aberdeen merchant known as “Danzig Willie” for the fortune he made trading through the Baltic ports. Forbes completed the seven-storey tower house around 1626, and it stands today almost exactly as he left it.

Here’s the twist most visitors never hear: Craigievar wasn’t pink for its first two centuries. It was cream, or off-white, like most tower houses of its age. The pink only appeared around 1826, when the Forbes family carried out repairs and added pigment to the limewash to match the granite detailing. Queen Victoria turned up unannounced in 1879, let herself in when nobody answered, and described it in her journal as a “strange and curious old castle.” The Forbes family lived there for 350 years without ever gutting or modernising it, then handed it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1963 — a seventeenth-century tower house that had barely been touched.

Inside, the plasterwork ceilings are among the finest surviving from the period, created by the same Italian-trained craftsmen who worked at Glamis. The staircase narrows as it climbs, so only one person can pass at a time. On a quiet morning, with mist sitting in the valley below, it still looks like something that shouldn’t exist in a northern landscape — which is presumably why Walt Disney is said to have drawn on it, among other castles, for Cinderella’s.

Managed by the National Trust for Scotland. Open April to October, interior by guided tour only — there’s no advance booking, so arrive early in peak season.

Crathes Castle — Where the Garden Might Outshine the History

Twenty-five minutes from Craigievar, Crathes has painted ceilings unlike anything else in Scotland. The original tower dates to the 1550s and has barely been altered since. The Great Hall ceiling is a gallery of 16th-century portraits, heraldic beasts, and moral verses, painted straight onto the plaster and still legible after 400-odd years.

The real surprise at Crathes is outside. Eight separate garden “rooms,” each planted for a different mood and season, divided by yew hedges that are three centuries old and taller than the castle’s outbuildings. Give yourself at least half a day here — the garden alone earns it.

Dunnottar Castle — At the Edge of the Sea

No photograph quite prepares you for Dunnottar. It sits on a rocky headland just south of Stonehaven, cliffs on three sides, reached by a single narrow path that crosses a rock bridge above crashing waves.

In September 1651, as Cromwell’s army swept north, the Honours of Scotland — the nation’s crown, sceptre, and sword — were sent here for safekeeping. A garrison of fewer than 70 men held the castle for eight months through a brutal winter siege, buying time for the regalia to be smuggled out under a minister’s wife’s skirts and buried beneath a nearby church floor for nine years. Dunnottar surrendered in May 1652 — but by then the jewels were long gone, and Cromwell’s men never found them.

Open year-round, weather permitting — the exposed clifftop setting means high winds or ice can close it at short notice, so it’s worth a quick check before you drive out.

Fyvie Castle — Five Towers, Five Families

Fyvie, near Turriff, tells Aberdeenshire’s history through its stonework. Five great families owned it across five centuries — Prestons, Meldrums, Setons, Gordons, and Leiths — and local tradition holds that each added one of its five towers. Historians aren’t entirely convinced, but it’s too good a story to let go of.

Fyvie holds one of Scotland’s finest collections of 17th-century portraits, and its wheel staircase is considered one of the great achievements of Scots Baronial craftsmanship anywhere in the country. The grounds include a walled garden and a loch favoured by wildlife — and, fittingly for a castle with this much history, a resident ghost story: the Green Lady, Fyvie’s most famous haunting.

Managed by the National Trust for Scotland. Open April to October.

Two More Worth the Detour

Castle Fraser, one of the grandest tower houses in Scotland, is also one of the least crowded — its core dates to around 1450, and unlike Craigievar, you can explore it at your own pace rather than on a guided tour. One practical warning from the National Trust itself: ignore your sat nav for the last two miles and follow the brown castle signs instead, or you’ll end up somewhere you shouldn’t.

Haddo House isn’t a castle at all — it’s a Georgian mansion designed in 1732 by William Adam, remodelled in lavish Victorian style in the 1880s — but it earns its place on any Aberdeenshire trip. During the Second World War it became an emergency maternity hospital, and more than 1,200 babies were born there, some in the very room where Queen Victoria once slept.

Planning Your Aberdeenshire Castle Trail

• A long weekend gives you time for four or five major castles without rushing. Base yourself in Aberdeen city — Marischal College, one of the world’s largest granite buildings, and an evening walk round the harbour are worth the extra time.
• Best time to visit: April to October, when National Trust for Scotland properties are fully open. September brings golden autumn light and noticeably thinner crowds.
• Getting there: Aberdeen International Airport has direct flights from London, Amsterdam, and several European cities. Edinburgh is a two-hour drive north on the A90, and most castles are well signposted from the main roads.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the Aberdeenshire Castle Trail?
  A self-drive route linking the region’s key historic castles, including Craigievar, Crathes, Drum, Kildrummy, and Balmoral. Most are within an hour’s drive of Aberdeen and clearly signposted.
• How many castles are there in Aberdeenshire?
  More than 300 — more than any other Scottish county. Not all are open to the public; some are private estates and others are ruins, but dozens welcome visitors, several under National Trust for Scotland care.
• Which castle should I visit first?
  Craigievar for the classic postcard shot. Dunnottar for drama and history. Crathes if you want architecture and a genuinely exceptional garden in one stop.
• How long does the Castle Trail take?
  The official self-drive itinerary is designed as four to six days. Most visitors need at least that long to do it justice rather than rushing between car parks. If you want a properly relaxed pace on Scotland’s narrow rural roads, budget closer to two weeks.
• Do I need to book in advance?
  Depends on the castle. Dunnottar tickets can be bought online ahead of time or at the gate on the day (card only). Craigievar doesn’t take advance bookings — tours run in small groups roughly every 30–45 minutes and can fill up on busy days, so arrive early.
• Best time of year to visit?
  Summer gives the longest days and best weather odds, along with the biggest crowds. Spring and early autumn are quieter with lovely light, though some sites reduce hours before Easter or after mid-October. Balmoral is the most time-sensitive of all — its grounds and gardens are open to visitors only from late March until the Royal Family arrives for their summer stay in early August.
• Is Craigievar really the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella Castle?
  It’s a popular claim the National Trust is happy to let stand, but it’s unconfirmed — Walt Disney is believed to have drawn on several European castles, Craigievar and Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein among them. Given how the pink tower looks against an Aberdeenshire sky, it’s easy to see why the story sticks.
• Can I do the trail without a car?
  Not easily. It’s built as a self-drive route, and most castles sit well outside town centres with no direct public transport. Craigievar has no direct bus service — you’d need to get to a nearby town and arrange a taxi. Dunnottar is the exception: it’s 1.6 miles from Stonehaven, which has its own train station, and can be reached on foot, by bike, or by local bus.

The 300 castles of Aberdeenshire have been waiting for centuries. A few more days won’t trouble them — but they’ll certainly change yours.

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