Troup Castle

Troup Castle Details

Troup Castle, scant remains of C12/13 castle in Iron Age promontory fort ?destroyed C14 and later tower house of unknown dates

  • Closest To: Gardenstown,New Aberdour
  • Access: Free Public Access
  • Grid Reference: NJ837662

Troup Castle was a small tower and courtyard built on a promontory that had been fortified since the Iron Age on the Moray Firth coast just west of Pennan. There is a public car park, but access can be difficult in wet or windy weather. The ruins are fragmentary and overgrown with turf, and are hard to interpret on the ground – such interpretation as is available focusses on the earlier phases of occupation as well.

Just outside the medieval defences are the remains of the subcircular Iron Age fort known as The Knoll. Excavation has produced 12th century pottery here, indicating that prior to the erection of Troup Castle, this feature was reused for a while. To the east, occupying the narrow neck of land leading to the promontory proper, are badly eroded earthworks and the footings of a tower and a second stone building. The Troups were opponents of Robert Bruce and their castle was probably sacked, to be replaced by the Keith Earls Marischal later in the 14th century. The Keiths maintained a castle here until 1632, including a tower which is probably the ruin mentioned above, but was abandoned in favour of a less exposed site, where the Garden family built Troup House. The ruins were probably plundered for building materials when the promontory was reused as an artillery fort known as Fort Fiddes.

HES Canmore database entry

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