Forres Castle

Forres Castle today a heavily mutilated and landscaped part of the original castle mound at the end of the High Street, dominated by a memorial. The castle mound originally extended further to the north and south, but has been truncated by landscaping. The mound was provided with a substantial buttressed stone wall enclosing a polygonal courtyard, inside which was at least one tower and a hall block. No plans of the internal arrangement of the castle survive.

It is not until the reign of Alexander II that we know the castle was in existence, as its mill was included in the foundation grant to Pluscarden Abbey in 1230. Forres Castle was taken from the English and burned out by Andrew Murray in 1297, and remained in ruins for half a century until rebuilt in stone by the Earls of Moray. By 1488 the mansion called Castlehill at Forres was the principal building here, held by the Dunbars of Westfield who became hereditary Sheriffs, and appear to have built a tower house on the site. The defences and tower had fallen into disrepair by the time the last Dunbar of Westfield died in 1711, and today the only indication that a castle stood here is the old sign on the park gates.

HES Canmore database entry