Beaufort Castle and Dounie

Beaufort Castle is a large mansion house built for the Frasers of Lovat in the late 19th century, replacing an earlier U-shaped mansion of uncertain date. It is situated on the south bank of the River Beauly within an extensive private estate – and the castle is not open to the public, although it is possible to walk through the wider estate. Within the vicinity of the mansion are remnants of earlier phases of occupation including some wall foundations to the south-east that are often considered to represent the ruined remnants of the old castle, although they may actually be part of the retaining wall of a garden feature on the main approach to the castle in the 18th century.

The land of Beaufort are mentioned in the 14th century as having been held by the Fenton family, who held part of the lordship of the Aird, and passed to the Bisset family. There was a “castrum de Beuford” mentioned in 1280, but this is the only reference to a castle in the medieval period, and the “ford” name at an important river crossing point is probably important. The lands of Dounie lie to the east of the mansion, along with the Dounie Burn, suggesting that originally the fortified “Dounie” site was at a different location to the mansion. Given the shifting river course, it is even conceivable that the “Dounie” was Castle Hill, an earthwork at the top of a promontory now on the north side of the river – and which makes no sense unless the promontory was once attached to the southern bank, and the river flowed to the north of the Castle Hill.

The tradition that the ruined masonry represent the remnant of the burned out tower of Beaufort, destroyed after Culloden by Cumberland cannot be tested without examination at the permission of the estate owner – who has not been open to the inspection and assessment. However, this tradition seems to have originated in the first half of the 19th century, the height of the baronial revival movement in Scotland, and whilst it MAY be the case, it seems unlikely. However, on an estate map from 1757 a ruin named “Beau Fort” can be seen to the east of a modest laird’s house which itself approximates to the same place as the mansion of c1815 on a later map. Whether this is in fact the masonry extant today is unknown, but this building was presumably destroyed some time before the Jacobite Rising of 1745, as the Fraser laird was forfeited for his Jacobite sympathies and could not have rebuilt by 1757. There is clearly a great deal of myth and confusion around this castle, which can only really be resolved by a proper analysis of the masonry and gardens close to the mansion.

HES Canmore database entry