Castle Grant
Castle Grant stands a mile north of Grantown-on-Spey in Inverness-shire detached in Morayshire. It is the former seat of the Clan Grant chiefs of Strathspey.[1] It was originally named Freuchie Castle but was renamed Grant in 1694.[1]
History
15th - 16th centuries
The castle is a Z-plan tower house that dates from the fifteenth century.[1] The lands had been held by the Clan Comyn but passed to the Grants in the fifteenth century and it became their main stronghold.[1]
The castle was originally named Freuchie Castle and James Grant of Freuchie supported King James V.[1]
17th - 18th centuries
Although the Grants were Protestants they joined James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose during the Scottish Civil War in the 1640s.[1] The name of the castle changed from Freuchie Castle to Castle Grant in 1694 when the lands were made into the regality of Grant.[1]
Ludovick Grant, the eighth laird supported the Hanoverians against the Stewarts and fought against the Jacobites in both the Jacobite rising of 1715 and that of 1745.[1] However Castle Grant was occupied by the Jacobites.[1]
In 1787 Robert Burns visited Castle Grant.
Modern history
The castle was restored by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1912.[2]
It later became derelict, but was restored in the 1990s.[1][3] The property was purchased for £720,000 by businessman Craig Whyte in 2006.[3] Castle Grant was seized by the Bank of Scotland after Whyte, who had led Rangers F.C. into its administration and liquidation in 2012, refused to make mortgage payments.[3] It was sold to foreign buyers in September 2014.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Coventry, Martin. (2008). Castles of the Clans: The Strongholds and Seats of 750 Scottish Families and Clans. pp. 241 - 243. ISBN 978-1-899874-36-1.
- ↑ Dictionary of Scottish Atchitects: Robert Lorimer
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Craig Whyte’s former Castle Grant home is sold". The Scotsman. 16 September 2014. http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/craig-whyte-s-former-castle-grant-home-is-sold-1-3543017. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Castle Grant) |
- Location map: 57°21’7"N, 3°35’41"W
- profile at www.clangrant-us.org
- http://www.strathspey-estate.co.uk/
- http://www.grantownmuseum.co.uk/