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List of names as written Various modes of spelling Authorities for spelling Situation Description remarks
SNOW TOWER Snow Tower
Snow Tower
Snow Tower
Statistical Account 1843
Collections of the Shires 1843
Revd. [Reverend] John Christie The Manse
061 The Great Keep or "Snow Tower" is undoubtedly the oldest of which any vestige is now to be seen, and it is at least as ancient as the days of William the Lion, whose brother the renowned David, of Huntingdon and Garioch, is known to have resided here. It is very probable that he was its first founder. However, it has been said that Gilbert, Thane of Mar, founded the said tower in the year 1172. The Snow Tower, (a name which it is supposed to have acquired from the whiteness of the freestone, of which it, as well as other parts of the Castle was built, was certainly a stupendous pile of masonary, having been no less than 166 feet in circumference externally and diameter internal 27 feet and 13 feet 4 inches thick in the walls at the ground.
It consisted of five floors or stories, but its exact height is unknown though one account makes it to be 54 yards. In the centre of this tower was a deep draw-well. which it is supposed was sufficient for the supply of the garrison, as there was a subterraneous passage or covered way leading down from the back of the fortress to the brook which runs through the ravine. The top vault, which was covered with grass, had a breach towards the north east commonly called the Devil's Gap. A few years ago this tower fell with a dreadful crash, and the remaining walls is only a few feet above the surface.

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[Page] 99
Parish of Kildrummy

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