Grand Tour Of Scotland: The Watchers and Corgarff Castle

Well let’s continue our Grand Tour Of Scotland. Dad and I had a lovely lunch and hot tea and was ready to hit the road again. We came across this beautiful castle and lookout point. If we did not took the wrong turnoff we would have missed this. The Castle was closed but you could see enough from the lookout point with a big stone with holes in it, pointing in different directions. I enjoyed taking photos here especially through the holes. The landscapes was stunning.

Day 5: 15 August 2019 – Lookout Point, The Watchers near Corgarff Castle

Originally a noble residence, Corgarff became an army base for hunting down Jacobite sympathizers and, later, whisky smugglers.

Corgarff Castle looks quite ordinary from a distance, but a closer look reveals its unusual star-shaped perimeter wall, built when it was an army barracks.

Corgarff’s story is really two tales. The first takes us from the mid-1500s, when the tower was built, into the 1600s when it was abandoned. In this, the castle’s heyday, it was the impressive fortified home of the Forbeses of Corgarff.
In 1645, the Marquis of Montrose occupied the castle, which was recorded as derelict at the time. Corgarff was subsequently repaired, only for it to be set on fire in 1689 and 1690 by Jacobites. James VII’s supporters wanted to be sure that government forces couldn’t use the castle.

The second tale begins in the mid-1700s when the tower became a barracks and lasts until 1831 when the army abandoned it. For 95 years, the Redcoats patrolled Strathdon, hunting down Jacobite sympathizers. Latterly they helped the excisemen to stamp out the illegal production and smuggling of whisky.

Corgarff itself briefly housed a (legal) distillery in the 1820s. A small whisky still from the period is displayed in one of the two pavilions added to the castle by the army.

The innovative Watchers Art Installation which sits on the Lecht Road and offers spectacular views towards Corgarff Castle. This installation has a close connection with the castle and its existing standing stone, A Moment in Time, which was designed to frame telescopic views of the castle.