Braikie Castle

Braikie Castle is a late 16th century Scottish tower house, midway between Arbroath and Brechin, east of the village of Friockheim in the parish of Kinnell.[1] It is sometimes shown as Brackie Castle or Brackoe Castle.[2]

Braikie Castle
A truncated view of Braikie Castle across fields

History

A heraldic panel over the door is dated 1581 and the castle dates from at least this date. It was built for Thomas Fraser of Kinnell the alleged son of the 4th Lord Lovat (as he does not appear in genealogies if true he is an illegitimate son) and is a good example of a fortified laird's house of this period. The date 1581 forms part of a marriage lintel that combines the armorial crests of the Frasers of Lovat with that of the Kinnaird family, also bearing the initials TF and CK. In 1602 Thomas is married to Jane Kinnaird rather than C. Kinnaird.[3][4]

By the mid-17th century the castle passed to Patrick Gray and his family.[4] From the Grays it then passed to the Ogilvie family. In 1742 it passed to the William Maule, Earl of Panmure.[5]

The overall form is a four-storey and attic, L-plan house, with the spiral stair in the re-entrant angle. A tall chimney stands adjacent to the stair. In incorporates corbelled bartizans and crow-stepped gables, and is distinctively Scottish in concept. A hidden basement holds the wine cellar.[6]

The castle appears in the magnum opus survey of Scottish castles by MacGibbon & Ross published in 1892, under the name of Brackie.[7]

Around 1960 it lost its roof and remains roofless.

References
  1. "Braikie Castle from The Gazetteer for Scotland". www.scottish-places.info.
  2. "Braikie Castle | Canmore". canmore.org.uk.
  3. Douglas, Robert (January 12, 2007). "The peerage of Scotland: containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, ... collected from the public records, and ancient chartularies of this nation, ... Illustrated with copper-plates. By Robert Douglas, Esq;".
  4. "Braikie Castle". The Castle Guy.
  5. "Braikie Castle".
  6. The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry
  7. The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, MacGibbon & Ross

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