Tolquhon Castle

The great transformation is unusually well dated. William Forbes, the seventh laird, undertook the main rebuilding between 1584 and 1589; the entrance inscription records the beginning and completion. The inscription supplies a much firmer chronology than an approximate stylistic date alone. The inscription explicitly excludes the old tower, so even such precise evidence should not become a construction date for every part of the site.

Thomas Leiper is associated with the new design. The ranges gather around a courtyard rather than concentrating the whole household in a single tall block. HES describes galleries connected with private accommodation, alongside service spaces and a formal garden. These are clues to the social organisation of the house. The owners could entertain, withdraw and move through different parts of the residence without every activity sharing the same room.

At the gate, small carved figures are often identified as William Forbes and his wife Elizabeth Gordon. HES presents that identification as likely, not certain. Look at them as possible portraits rather than treating every weathered face as securely named. The heraldry and ornament make the entrance a statement of identity even where the meaning of an individual carving remains open to interpretation.

Compare the old tower with the surrounding ranges. The different scale of walls and openings can help distinguish inherited defensive fabric from later residential priorities. That contrast does not mean the newer house abandoned security altogether. It suggests a combination of practical protection and cultivated display. Take the courtyard slowly, and use the positions of entrances and stairs to think about how a large household might have occupied it.

The Forbes family’s loss of the property was not the immediate end of all habitation. The estate was sold in 1716, and the unwilling laird was removed in 1718. The HES monument record says occupation continued into the nineteenth century before decay followed. It is therefore misleading to make the entire castle an abandoned ruin at the moment the Forbes household lost possession. Changes of ownership and physical abandonment are different events.

The entrance deserves a photograph from both sides, where access permits. Comparing the outward display with the courtyard beyond reveals how arrival and domestic space belong to one carefully organised composition.

Tolquhon is protected as scheduled monument SM90302. The designation includes more than the most photogenic gateway: buried remains and the relationship with surrounding spaces also matter. For the visitor, the reward is a clear architectural conversation between an older tower and an ambitious later house. Start outside with the approach, then compare the courtyard as a whole before studying details. Nearby Tarves Tomb provides another connection with the Forbes family and Leiper’s work, but the castle itself already makes their concern with memory and status tangible. Check current access before setting out.