Category: Nature

Duffus Castle, the medieval stronghold of the Moray family was just about two miles from my home at the Moray Coast Hopeman. It is known as one of Scotland´s finest motte and bailey castles.

Mottes were common in Scotland the 1100s and 1200s, before they were replaced by stone castles. They were fortifications, usually consisting of a wooden keep on top of an artificial earthwork mound. Some also had an enclosed courtyard or bailey, containing additional wooden buildings, protected by a ditch and palisade. (Historic Enviroment Scotland)

The castle we see today was built in the 1300s, replacing an earlier timber fortress and felt to ruin after it was abandoned in 1705. Duffus Castle is situated on the Laich of Moray, which became a very fertile area after Spynie Loch and the surrounding marshland had been drained. 

The motte is a huge man-made mound, with steep sides and a wide ditch separating it from the bailey. The whole site is enclosed by a water-filled ditch, which is more a mark of its boundary than it is a serious defensive measure. (Historic Enviroment Scotland)

Duffus Castle had been built by Freskin, a Flemish man who was sent there by King David I in 1130 to represent the crown. He built an earthwork-and-timber castle on the Duffus estate. His son William took the title of ‘de Moravia’, the meaning “of Moray”. By 1200 the Moray family had become the noblest and influential family in northern Scotland.

Around 1270 the castle passed Sir Reginald Cheyne the Elder, Lord of Inverugie, who probably built the square stone keep on top of the motte and the walls around the courtyard. By 1350 the castle belonged to a younger son of the Earl of Sutherland through marriage, by then the stone square probably had started to slip down the mound and a new residence was built in the north of the courtyard. 

At the end of the 17th century, Lord Duffus moved to Duffus House and Duffus Castle fell into decay.

Burghead – Hopeman´s lovely neighbour village was built partly on a very important Pictish Fort. Burghead lies on a peninsula going into the Moray Firth and most of the town is surrounded by water on three sides.

The present town was built at the beginning of the 19th century and about half of the Pictish city was destroyed, back then it was believed to be a Roman fort.

The easily defended headland was fortified during the early Iron Age and may have been settled considerably earlier. From the 300s what we now call Burghead became an important centre for the people referred to by the Romans as the Verturiones, who went on to establish the Pictish Kingdom of Fortriu: with, very probably, Burghead as its capital. (Undiscovered Scotland)

Over the next five centuries, a large fortress was built spanning over three hectares of land, the biggest centre of power in Scotland at that time.

In 884 it was captured by Sigurd the Powerful, the Norse Earl of Orkney, who rebuilt the fort and it became the centre of Norse power in Moray. The Danish called it Burghe and stayed until 1010 when the Scots came into power.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Stephen Family started to built boats in the small village that had found its place here.

Meanwhile, the spectacular earthworks that continued to stand on the promontory caused considerable interest among early antiquaries, who tended to attribute them either to the Norse or to the Romans, who almost certainly penetrated this far into Caledonia. (Undiscovered Scotland)

But this changed at the start of the 19th century when the village and the surrounding land was bought by William Young of Inverugie who had planned a much larger settlement with streets neatly laid out along a grid.

A harbour was built, warehouses and a coast guard station followed and Burghead became an important herring fishing port. Burghead was thriving but most of the Pictish fort was lost. Stones were used to building houses and the harbour. A Roman bath was roofed over and looks quite peculiar today. (To visit it you have to get the key from the Burghead Visitor Center, which was already closed on my second visit.)

The stone from the fortress ramparts was reused in the construction of the new harbour. During the destruction of the fortress 30 Pictish stones were discovered inscribed with pictures of bulls. Only six survive and it is assumed that the other 24 were simply used to help build the harbour. (Undiscovered Scotland)

Today only little remained of the former Pictish fort right on top of the peninsula. And the views from up there are stunning and are known for watching the sea life. The charming visitor centre gives a little glimpse in how life might have been more than 1000 years ago.

Stepping into the impressive gardens all around Fyvie Castle in Aberdeenshire, an impressive 800 years old fortress, which became larger with each generation.

The earliest parts of Fyvie Castle date back to the 13th century, Fyvie was an open-air court held by Robert the Bruce, and Charles I lived there as a child.

Ghosts, legends and folklore are all woven into the tapestry of Fyvie’s 800-year-old history. But stories aside, we do know William the Lion was at Fyvie around 1214 and later Robert the Bruce and Charles I were among its royal guests. (Visit Scotland)

The walled garden specialises in growing a wide range of Scottish fruits.

Bow Fiddle Rock

On my way home to Hopeman, I made one more stop and walked to Bow Fiddle Rock, a natural sea arch along the Moray coast near Portknockie.

Besides resembling the look of a fiddle, Bow Fiddle rock is also a nesting place for many sea birds like herring gulls, great black-backed and lesser black-backed gulls.

The rock formation has been caused by erosion and movement from the tectonic plates of the earth. Scotland lay on the edge of two ancient continents called Laurentia and Avalonia. Eventually, the two collided resulting in the folding of the strata rock which is why the Bow Fiddle Rock slopes down to the south. (Britainexplorer)