Blervie Castle

Blervie Castle is a ruined tower erected on a ridge of high ground overlooking the town of Forres and Findhorn Bay. Although there are records of a castle here in the 13th century, seemingly on land held by the bishops of Moray, nothing of that older structure survives, and what can be seen is the remains of the 16th century tower house built for an offshoot of the Dunbar family of Westfield. It is fenced off for safety reasons, but can be seen from adjacent land clearly enough.

The tower house was probably a pair of adjoining quadrangular towers offset to each other, and stood to five stories, with a projecting stair turret supported on corbels from the first floor upwards. There was a barmkin courtyard, now vanished. The ground floor was vaulted, and the great hall was on the first floor, in the easternmost of the two towers, which has collapsed. The smaller, westward, tower has a single room at each level. There was an assault on Blervie led by the Marquis of Huntly in 1646, and it may be that the castle was damaged at this point. Either way, it seems likely that the eastern tower fell into disrepair and was reworked at a lower height before it was removed, deliberately or otherwise, in the latter 18th century, when it had been purchased by William Duff, Lord Braco, and given to his son Captain Lewis Duff. The masonry was then reused to build the adjacent agricultural buildings. The remaining part remained largely intact until 2005, when it partially collapsed in a storm. Deterioration and masonry loss continues to this day.

HES Canmore database entry