|
Craigievar Castle
is a pinkish harled castle 6 miles south of Alford,
Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was the seat of Clan Sempill and the
Forbes family resided here for 350 years until 1963.
The great seven-story castle was completed in 1626 by the
Aberdonian merchant William Forbes, ancestor of the Forbes
baronets of Craigievar and brother of the Bishop of Aberdeen,
Patrick Forbes of Corse Castle. Forbes purchased the partially
completed structure from the impoverished Mortimer family in the
year 1610. Forbes was nicknamed Danzig Willy, a reference to his
shrewd international trading success with the Baltic states.
Craigievar is noted for its exceptionally crafted plasterwork
ceilings featuring figures of the Nine Worthies and other family
emblems.
In 1824 Sir John Forbes, who had inherited the castle the
previous year on the death of his older brother, commissioned
Aberdeen architect John Smith to report on the condition of
Craigievar. His report highlighted the need for a new roof and
new harling, but noted that the castle was
"well worth being preserved as it is one of the finest specimens
of architecture in this Country of the age and stile in which it
is built, and finely situated."
Sir John paid for a new roof, and had the castle completely
reharled. Until then the exterior finish of the castle had been
a cream color. Sir John agreed with John Smith's recommendation
that the harling should have pigments added to make it more
closely match the color of the granite detailing, and the result
was a distinctly pink color. Meanwhile as little "improvement"
as possible was undertaken within the castle, and as much of the
original paneling and furniture as possible was retained. As a
result Craigievar Castle became a very early example of a
tourist attraction, and people started to journey from
increasingly far afield in order to visit.
One visitor who didn't need to travel far was Queen Victoria,
whose own castle at Balmoral was only just over 20 miles away as
the crow flies. The royal visitor turned up unannounced on the
afternoon of 18 June 1879 and, according to Victoria's journal,
on finding no one at home, she simply wandered around this
"strange and curious old castle" until the residents were
alerted to her presence and returned to greet her.
By this time the Forbes were maintaining Craigievar Castle as a
holiday home and tourist attraction, while running a main family
home at Fintray House, at Hatton of Fintray on the River Don
north of Aberdeen. This allowed them to strictly limit the
concessions made to the modern world at Craigievar, which in
turn helped preserve it for future generations. In 1884 Sir
William Forbes inherited the title of 17th Lord Sempill, marking
the start of what has become known as the Forbes-Sempill family.
Fintray House was requisitioned for the war effort in 1941 and
the family moved permanently to the much smaller Craigievar.
After the war the problems of, in effect, living within a museum
became increasingly obvious, and the family opened discussions
with the National Trust for Scotland in 1962, which led to the
NTS taking over the castle and opening it more fully to the
public.
|
