Megginch Castle

Megginch Castle Details

Megginch Castle, a C16 tower house of the Hays sold to the Drummonds C17 and largely hidden by C19 extensions.

  • Closest To: Errol, Perth
  • Access: Occasional Access
  • Grid Reference: NO242246

Megginch Castle is privately occupied and cannot be seen from public roads. It is not usually open to the public but the grounds are occasionally open. The old part of the castle is a 16th century tower house erected by the Hays of Errol, and massively extended in the 19th century, but it may be earlier in origin.

The castle is not obviously sited on a defensive site, but it is in fact built on a low rise in the Carse of Gowrie between Perth and Dundee. Today, this landscape is fertile farmland, but it has been extensively drained, and the castle may once have been surrounded by a morass of marshes. The Hays were well established locally when the castle was built, but sold Megginch in 1664 after less than a century, presumably having suffered financially for royalist support. Extensions took place in the 18th century as well as later, and the whole has been restored in the modern period after a fire in 1969.

Megginch Castle on Scotland’s Gardens website

HES Canmore database entry

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