Hatton Castle Newtyle

Hatton Castle Newtyle Details

Hatton Castle, privately owned C16 tower house of the Oliphants occupied to C18 and restored C20

  • Closest To: Newtyle,Coupar Angus,Meigle,Alyth
  • Access: No Access
  • Grid Reference: NO301410

Hatton Castle is an occupied tower house dating back to the 16th century and said to have been erected in 1575 for the 4th Lord Oliphant on land granted to his predecessor by Robert the Bruce. However, the fourth Lord Oliphant died in about 1498, and it was his namesake, Laurence the 7th Lord Oliphant who held the property in 1575.

It may have been preceded by the (now lost) castle of Balcraig, and have been founded by the fourth lord when he came of age in 1455 and was created Lord Oliphant. If so, the Z-plan mansion that stands today is a modification of an earlier great tower – but as Hatton does not have a tower house depicted on Ponts maps, there is must to question in the history. When the eighth Lord Oliphant died without children in 1630, he had already resigned his estates to the Crown, and Hatton had been in the possession of James Halyburton of Pitcur since 1617. The castle survived the 17th entury intact, and was abandoned after 1715 and deroofed a few years later. It was restored by a member of the Oliphant family in the 1980s and remains a private home.

HES Canmore database entry

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