OS1/12/14/45A

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[Page] 45A


THE CASTLE OF FORRES.

We observe the Royal Engineers, stationed here at
present, have been last week taking measurements of
the ancient site of the Castle of Forres. The
earliest mention of this Castle in history is in the
reign of King Duff, who was slain in it in the year
966. In the subsequent reign it was taken, and
being constructed probably of wood, was burned and
demolished. It was rebuilt, and formed one of the
strongholds in the north, which the Danish invaders
in 1020 were unable for a time to subdue. It was
again burnt in the time of Macbeth's father, or father-
in-law, Gilcomgain. It was rebuilt about 1030
and occupied in the time of the "gracious" Duncan.
In the year 1189 William the Lion dated charters
from it, and Alexander II. did the same in the year
1238. In the time of Alexander III., 1264, William
Wiseman, sheriff of Forres, disbursed the sum of
ten pounds for building a new tower in it beyond
the King's chamber, at which time ten hogsheads
of wine were put into its cellars. During the En-
glish occupancy of it, in the reign of Edward I. of
England, 1296-99, it was under the general manage-
ment of Reginald le Chen, Sheriff of Elgin, the ances-
or of the Sutherlands and Keiths, with Henry de
Rye, an Englishman, as governor. When our brave
ancestors, under the rule of King Robert the Bruce,
threw off the allegiance of England and wrested the
strongholds of the country from "the auld enemies"
of Scotland, the Castle was dismantled and laid in
ruins, to prevent its occupancy by aliens. It must
have been subsequently re-edified and made fit for
a Royal residence, for, in the fourteenth century,
we find Royal Charters were granted from it, and
David II. issued a writ here in the year 1367. At
this time it was probably a well-fortified stone
erection, but how long it so continued we have no
means of knowing. The Dunbars, Earls of Moray,
resided in it, and it afterwards became the residence
of the family of Westfield, as hereditary Sheriffs of
Moray (an. [anno] 1445). It is commonly spoken of in the
seventeenth century as "the Sheriff's House."
In 16-- when the laird of Westfield became bank-
rupt, the writs were addressed to him at the Castle
of Forres, as the messuage or manor-place or residence
of the laird. It probably became ruinous about the
beginning of last century, and in 1713 Provost Daw-
son of Forres obtained permission to build a town
house for himself on the site, which never reached
beyond the first or cellerage story. Dawson became
involved in the rebellion of 1715, fled the country
and the building was not farther proceeded with.
It remains to this day in the state in which it was
left 150 years ago. The building material is chiefly
stones from the Califer quarries- "Crackies" - mixed
with rough boulders and stones from the Burgie
quarries, with the addition of stones evidently of a
former building. These last are chiefly freestone,
a few bearing traces of hewen work. The corners
are of freestone, and also the rybats of the doors
and windows. Some of them are evidently the stones
used in a former erection, as the ancient bottle
moulding at the sides does not match the bevelling
of the lintel. The size of the building is 59 feet from
north to south, by 47 feet from east to west. The
external wall, measuring from the outside, is from 7
to 9 feet high. The building is vaulted, while the
top is covered with a carpet of unbroken green sward.
There are four windows 36in. [inches] by 44in. [inches] in the east
wall; each has had 4 iron stauncheons, which ap-
pear to have been rudely wrested from their places
and the soles broken to remove them! On the west
side there are likewise 4 windows of the same di-
mensions. In the north wall there are two doors - the
centre one 6 feet 6in. [inches] by 3 feet 3in. [inches]; and the other
in the north-east corner, 6 feet by 2 feet 10in. [inches], with
bottle moulding rybats from a previous building.
A door at the opposide corner of the south wall of
the same side also leads to the east vaulted chamber
which is the whole breadth of the building. The di-
mensions of a window in the south wall of the west
vault are 4 feet 1 in. [inch] by 2 feet 7 in. [inches] The area under
the vaults is divided in the middle by a wall 5 feet
thick and 4¼ feet high to the spring of the arch, and
9½ feet to the centre of it. The size of the east vault
is 16 feet by 47 feet. In the north east corner of it
is an arched recess, apparently for a fire place. The
western vault is the same size as the eastern one, and
from the south-west corner of it there is a round
staircase intended to communicate with the upper
part of the building.
The walls are pretty entire, and are about 4 feet
thick. The external portions have been carefully
built with stone and lime, partly grouted and run
together. It is strange that clay instead of lime has
been used in the internal or centre part of the walls!
Toward the south there are stone spurs left to
take on an extension of the walls southward. It is
probable an outside stair was intended here, as an
access to the main entry of the mansion, which would
thus have faced the South.
So much for the visible erections, which after all
possess very little historical value, being but a com-
mentary on the parable of the provident man men-
tioned in scripture who "began to build but was not
able to finish."
The site of the Old Castle is of considerable inter-
est in an antiquarian aspect, but, unfortunately,
nothing remains to designate either its form or ex-
tent. Chapman's ground plan of it in "Chalmers's
Caledonia" is manifestly erroneous. There is nothing
here to suggest its octagon form - nothing even to
indicate a fosse or draw-bridge. The nature of the
surroundings at the south and east forbids such a
supposition, although at the west and north the
Castle may have been environed by a ditch and
morass, through which the Mosset in early times may
have flowed.
The ground or centre site is completely level. It
is a parallelogram of 154 feet long by 105 feet broad.
There are no traces of built walls along the sides,
but lime and rubbish indicate that walls have been.
At the west corners there are traces of the founda-
tions of bastions, which in all probability belonged
to the earlier buildings. They have the usual ap-
pearance of an accumulation of small stones com-
pacted by run-lime - hard and tenaceous as a rock.
The history of the property is well-known. From
the earliest period of the occupancy of Forres by the
Vacomagi, in the year 535, the Castle was probably
held by local Governors for the King's use and service.
Afterwards the Earls of Moray and others were its cus-
todiers, till the year 1443, when Alexander Dunbar,
son of the Earl of Moray, was unjustly deprived
of the Earldom, on account of his mother's
near kinship to his father. He, however, to com-
pensate him for the loss, got Westfield, was knighted
and made heritable Sheriff of Moray. The Castle
of Forres remained in possession of the Sheriffs of
Moray, till it was sold, along with all the Moray-
shire property of the family, by Thomas Dunbar of
Grangehill, to Sir James Grant of Grant, nearly a
century ago. The Seafield family sold the Castle
Hill to W. Colquhoun Grant, Esq., a nephew of the
late Duchess of Gordon, and it, within the last
twenty years, was acquired by purchase by Si Charles
R. Macgrigor, Bart. [Baronet], London, the present proprietor.

Transcriber's notes

THE CASTLE OF FORRES - Cutting from Forres Gazette of the 27th May 1868, written by the Editor Mr. Miller