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Aberdour Castle is in the village of Aberdour, Fife, Scotland. Parts of the castle date from around 1200, making Aberdour one of the two oldest datable standing castles in Scotland, along with Castle Sween in Argyll, which was built at around the same time.Tabraham, Scotland's Castles, p.33
The earliest part of the castle was a modest hall house, on a site overlooking the Dour Burn. Over the next 400 years, the castle was successively expanded according to contemporary architectural ideas. The hall house became a tower house in the 15th century, and was extended twice in the 16th century. The final addition was made around 1635, with refined Renaissance details, and the whole was complemented by a walled garden to the east and terraced gardens to the south. The terraces, dating from the mid-16th century, form one of the oldest gardens in Scotland, and offer extensive views across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh.
The castle is largely the creation of the Clan Douglas Earls of Morton, who held Aberdour from the 14th century. The earls used Aberdour as a second home until 1642, when their primary residence, Dalkeith Palace, was sold. A fire in the late 17th century was followed by some repairs, but in 1725 the family purchased nearby Aberdour House, and the medieval castle was allowed to fall into decay. Today, only the 17th-century wing remains roofed, while the tower has mostly collapsed. Aberdour Castle is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and is open to the public all year.
In 1351, Sir William Douglas gave the lands of Aberdour to his nephew, Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith, although he retained the castle for himself until his death two years later. The grant was confirmed by King David II in 1361.Apted, p.5 In 1386 Aberdour and Dalkeith were combined to form a single barony, with the principal seat at Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, and Aberdour as a secondary residence. James, fourth Lord Dalkeith, succeeded to the joint barony in 1456, and was created Earl of Morton in 1458, prior to his marriage to Joanna, the deaf-mute daughter of James I. The newly created earl expanded the existing hall house, heightening and rebuilding the structure to suit his elevated status. The second earl carried out extensions to Aberdour Castle around 1500, building a new stair tower and south block.
Aberdour Castle was reserved to Morton's mother-in-law, Katherine Stewart, dowager Countess of Morton, until 1564. During the war with England known as the Rough Wooing, she was authorised to keep a garrison at Aberdour and her men were exempted from other service in February 1549.James Beveridge, Register of the Privy Seal: 1548-1556, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 15 no. 96. Morton went to law against her in 1553 over the lands of Aberdour. She had tried to hold a tenantry court at Aberdour, and Morton objected on the grounds that women who held lands in "conjunct-fee" had never held courts.Robert Kerr Hanny, Acts of the Lords of Council: 1501-1554 (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 621. In 1564, Mary, Queen of Scots, confirmed Morton's right to the whole barony of Dalkeith and Aberdour.Apted, p.7 In 1566, Morton was involved in planning a rebellion against the Queen, which resulted in the murder of Queen Mary's secretary, David Riccio, but failed to gain further momentum, and Morton was forced to flee to England.Fraser, pp. 298–311 However, by the end of the year he had returned, and by July the following year, Mary was imprisoned and had been forced to abdication by the Scottish noblemen. Morton was appointed Regent of Scotland, for the child King James VI in 1572.
Morton undertook extensions to the castle in the 1570s, rebuilding the south block of c. 1500, and extending it further south to form the present central range. He also drew inspiration from contemporary gardens in England, such as Hampton Court, in laying out the terraced gardens. The Privy Council met at Aberdour Castle in August 1576, but Morton's regency came to an end in 1578.Apted, p.8 He was later implicated in the 1567 murder of Queen Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, and executed in 1581 on the orders of the young King.
While Morton was in prison, his lands were given to his nephew, Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus, but were granted to the Earl of Lennox after Morton's execution. In 1587, Lennox returned the Morton lands to Angus,Apted, p.9 who was now acknowledged as the 5th Earl of Morton. On Angus' death, in 1588, the earldom of Morton passed to another kinsman, William Douglas of Lochleven (d. 1606). William's son predeceased his father, but his widow, Jean Lyon, continued to live at Aberdour with her third husband, Lord Spynie. James VI and Anne of Denmark stayed for five days with Lord Spynie in December 1590. Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 442. Colonel William Stewart and Sir James Sandilands accused Spynie of entertaining the rebel Earl of Bothwell at Aberdour in 1592 but he denied this. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 753, 757-9: John Spottiswood, History of the Church of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1847), p. 423
The Earls of Morton continued to live at Aberdour, although they never regained their earlier high status. In 1688 the castle was badly damaged by fire, and in 1690 the 11th Earl consulted the architect James Smith. Smith surveyed the damage and drew up proposals for repairing and extending the castle with another wing north of the east range.Apted, p.11 The Earl also sought estimates for the demolition of the tower house and central range. Nothing ever came of these proposals, although repairs were carried out to the east range, being completed in 1703.
The 15th-century rebuilding added two upper floors, and rearranged the interior. Vaulted basements, including a kitchen, and a spiral stair were inserted, and the heightened wall was topped by a parapet with ; spaces through which objects could be dropped on attackers at the base of the wall. The tower suffered major collapses in 1844 and 1919, and today just the basement survives, with only a small section of the southeast wall standing to its full height.
The two bedrooms on the first floor each have their own closets and , or privies. The west apartment is accessed from the terraced garden, via another stair to the south-west, and has a private stair which led up to another chamber above, suggesting that these were the Earl and Countesses apartments. The upper storey, whose timber floor is now missing, comprised three more apartments, including one over the stair. The exterior of the block is decorated with a horizontal decorative strip of masonry known as a string course. One first-floor window is decorated with carved stone and strapwork, in a similar style to windows at Edinburgh Castle and Drochil Castle, in the Scottish Borders, both of which were built under Morton's Regency.Apted, p.18
Archaeological investigations were undertaken between 1977 and 1980, to determine whether the lower terraces, which were depicted on a map of 1740, had indeed existed. Although the foundations of the terraces were found, the remains could not be precisely dated, but are thought to have been constructed in the second half of the 16th century.Cruft, C. H. "The state of garden archaeology in Scotland". In Brown, A. E. (ed.) (1991), Garden archaeology: papers presented to a conference at Knutsford Hall, Northamptonshire, April 1988 (CBA research report 78), pp.185 The high retaining walls were rebuilt in 1981, and the terraces were laid with grass, since the excavations had not revealed any evidence of historic planting schemes.
A 16th-century "beehive" shape doocot, or pigeon house, is located to the south, containing around 600 nesting boxes. The structure rises in four steps, divided by "rat courses"; projecting ribs which prevented rats from climbing inside.
The 17th-century walled garden covers around , with walls up to high. It lies to the west of the outer courtyard, and was originally entered from doors in the southwest and northeast corners. These doors have carved pediments, with strapwork and the Douglas heart emblem over the west door, which led to the terraces. The east door led to St. Fillan's Church, and is carved with the date 1632, together with a monogram of the initials of the Earl and Countess. A kitchen garden was located across the Kirk Lane, and are located in the walls. A summer house was built into the south-east garden wall in 1675, but was demolished in the 18th century.
In 1691, botanist James Sutherland supplied exotic plants, including Persian jasmine, and Common fig, to Aberdour from the Physic Garden in Edinburgh, the forerunner of the Royal Botanic Garden. The later entrance in the west wall dates from around 1740. During the Second World War, the garden was in use as a market garden and for pig rearing. In the centre of the garden, an early 17th-century Scottish sundial is mounted on a 19th-century base. The sundial was brought here before 1887, possibly from Castle Wigg in southwest Scotland.
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