Forbes Castle

Castle Forbes, Aberdeenshire
Photo © Gilbert Scott, 30 April 2007

Forbes Castle (or Castle Forbes) is a 19th-century Scots Baronial country house near Alford in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

The 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) Vale of Alford estate has been home to the Forbes' for over 600 years. The original house was named Putachie. The present castle overlooking the River Don was built in 1815 by the 17th Lord Forbes, to designs by the architect Archibald Simpson.

Today it is occupied by Malcolm Forbes, Master of Forbes, and his wife Jinny and open to residential guests. The estate offers fishing and golf. In 1996, a former dairy building was converted into a small perfumery. The castle is a category B listed building.

There is a stone circle dating to 3000 BC on the estate.

LORD FORBES.

Castle Forbes, the principal residence of James Ochoncar Forbes, Lord Forbes, premier Baron of Scotland, is situated on a gentle eminence on the banks of the Don. Here the river flows in an easy serpentine course; the mountain of Benachie rises to an Alpine height immediately at the back of the castle, and with the purple bloom of the heath flowers, and the grey rocks appearing through, yields a picturesque contrast with the lively green of the thriving plantations, and the many rural beauties of the country in front of this noble mansion, where gentlemen's seats, and well-cultivated farms, set off the fainter tints of the blue misty mountains which terminate the scene.

The castle was built by the present noble proprietor, and though in the style of an ancient baronial mansion, is, nevertheless, at once an elegant and majestic edifice, the higher parts of which, towering through the surrounding trees, present an image of grandeur to the country.

The worthy nobleman, whose seat is here described, is the chief of the ancient family of Forbes; who derive their appellation from an estate of that name in the county of Aberdeen, which was granted by Alexander II., King of Scotland, about 1230, to an ancestor of the present peer, who is the seventeenth Lord Forbes. His Lordship was born 7th of March, 1765, and was twenty-six years an officer in the Coldstream regiment of foot-guards, of which he had an ensigncy in 1781, lieutenancy in 1/86, a company in 1793, and was seniorcaptain in that regiment, when he was promoted to the command of the third garrison battalion in 1807- He had the Tank of major-general in 1802 ; succeeded his father, 1804; was chosen one of the sixteen representatives of the Scottish peerage, at the general election in 1806 ; and re-chosen 1807- He was appointed second in command of the troops in the Mediterranean, March, 1808, with the rank of lieutenant-general; and the same year sailed for Sicily; was constituted colonel of the ninety-fourth regiment of foot, 14th April, 1809; and of the 54th regiment offoot, 23d September, 1809.

His Lordship married at Crailing, 2d June, 1792, Elizabeth, eldest daughter and heiress of Walter Hunter, Esq., of Polmood in the county of Peebles, and Crailing in the county of Roxburgh, by Lady Caroline Mackenzie, fourth daughter of George, Earl of Cromarty ; and has a numerous issue.

It may be proper to mention, that the castle, which is just completed, is built of light-coloured granite, the prevailing rock in this district; and also that the public apartments, which are large, and of elegant proportions, are tastefully furnished and ornamented with a variety of pictures, among which the old family portraits, in their antique dresses, exhibit an amusing contrast with the costume and character of the present generation.

After noticing these general facts, it will only be necessary to add, that the Plate will afford a more perfect idea of the appearance and general style of the mansion than any further detailed description which could be offered.

VIEWS OF THE SEATS OF NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN, IN ENGLAND, WALES... BY J. P. NEALE, 1822.