Scottish Castles Association

Castle of Fiddes is a 16th century L-plan tower house of three storeys to which has been added a round fair-tower at one end of the main block. The round tower is corbelled out to square and crowned by a corbiestepped watch-chamber. A round entrance stair-tower rises a story lower in the re-entrant angle. Another stair-tower projects from the middle of the main block and is capped by a square corbel led-out watch-chamber. Bartizans, with conical roofs, crown two corners of the castle. The walls are pieced by shot-holes.

The basement is vaulted and contains a kitchen with a large fireplace, and a wine-cellar with a small stair up to the hall above. The main stair rises only to the first floor, the upper floors are reached by stairs in the round tower and the stair- turret. The hall was on the first floor and there was a private room adjoining in the wing with many private chambers on the floors above.

The Arbuthnotts owned the property until it was sold in the late 17th century to the Thomsons of Arduthie. The castle, now a farmhouse, was restored in the 1960s. Now owned by an SCA member.

Wording taken from The Castles of Scotland Third Edition by Martin Coventry