Cluny Castle Badenoch

Cluny Castle is a large and privately owned mansion house built on or near the site of a manorial site and tower house probably dating back to the 14th century. There is no access from public roads and the site is largely hidden from view.

The house is a fairly uninspiring two storey 19th century mansion which has been provided with battlements and turrets to inspire a castellated feel. Reports of a vault containing a well that was filled in when the courtyard was created in the 19th century are indicative of significant landscaping works being done which would have removed most if not all evidence for the older buildings, and any evidence that survives is hidden within the basements of the property. The proximity of the 13th century castle at Ruthven serving the lordship of Badenoch makes a second castle this close unlikely, and so it is likely that any early structures here built by the Macphersons as tenants of the Lords of Badenoch would have been relatively minor. Andrew Macpherson was the first Macpherson “of” Cluny and it is likely that he was therefore responsible for a rebuild reflecting his new status, replacing an earlier laird’s house and possibly courtyard. The House of Cluny was burned down in 1745, the laird having fought as a Jacobite, and the new building was founded in 1805, 20 years after the Macphersons regained the property.

HES Canmore database entry