Benholm Castle

Benholm Castle is a ruined tower house dating back to the 15th century situated immediately adjacent to a more modern mansion house. The buildings were erected overlooking the head of a steep-sided glen, on a promontory of sorts with watercourses to the east and south-west. The tower is rectangular in plan, and stands to its full height on two sides, retaining the caphouse which was a later addition, but the east wall and half of the north gable have gone, having collapsed in the winter of 1992/93. The entrance was on the ground floor, and a mural stair led to the first floor hall, which was above two vaulted cellars, with twin rooms at the upper floors providing accommodation. The 18th century mansion house was also derelict at this time, standing adjacent to the tower, and formed the southern end of a U-shaped courtyard mansion. The buildings have since been restored, although the tower itself was only able to be stabilised in its ruined state.

The lands of Benne were held by a family who took their name from them, and passed by marriage to Walter de Lundie at around the end of the 13th century, and by the mid 15th century there was a fortified centre here described in 1445 as “the castell-wallis of Benham”. In 1491 the estate was ranted to a younger son of the laird of Lundie, including the “Manis and Casteltoune” which suggests there was a castle here of some sorts, most likely including the tower, which may have been founded some fifty years earlier. In 1556, a charter was granted to the heiress Elizabeth Lundie and her husband Robert Keith, the second son of the Earl Marischal, and a further charter of 1566 raised the estate into a barony which included the tower and fortalice. Upon their deaths, the barony passed to the Earl Marischal, who then maintained it as a secondary home.

In 1623, the then Earl Marischal died, and Banholm was part of a legal case between the 6th Earl, his stepmother and her new husband Alexander Strachan. and his half-brother James Keith, who had taken possession of Benholm during the lifetime of the elderly 5th earl. A notable scandal at the time, the end result was that the lands and barony of Benholm were conveyed by James Keith to Strachan, and then to the 6th earl. When the 10th Earl Marischal was forfeited in 1715, the estate ended up in the hands of the Scott family, and in 1760 David Scott had the new mansion erected alongside the tower, and the tower began to decline. The whole house fell into disrepair after being requisitioned for military use in the Second World War, and was abandoned by 1950. The current owners, members of the Strachan family, purchased the place in 1990, but unfortunately the tower collapsed before the stabilisation work could begin. It remains a private home, and is not open to the public.

HES Canmore database entry