Scottish Castles Experience Day 3 – Part1: Fyvie Castle

I was really excited to be able to visit Fyvie Castle. From what I had read about it and had seen in various programs that talked about the castle, it was quite a place.

The oldest of the castles we were visiting on the tour, Fyvie was said to have been built originally in about 1211 by King William the Lion of Scotland. It remained in royal hands until about 1390 when it became the property of the Preston family in order to pay off a ransom. The Prestons celebrated by building a tower.

Early on in its history, however, it gained a curse. A prophet called Thomas the Rhymer turned up at the castle in the 13^th century (same century in which it had been built). Due to some freak gust of wind that came up just as he reached the gate, Thomas was incensed that the gate had been slammed in his face and put a curse on the castle. This curse involved three stones that were referred to as the “weeping stones”.

The “weeping stones” always appear to be wet no matter what is happening with their environment. The curse says that, until all three stones are found and removed from the property, no eldest son of the owner of the castle will ever inherit. So far, it has appeared to be true as no eldest son of any owner since has ever inherited the castle.

Originally the three stones were said to have been boundary stones marking the parish. But one supposedly found its way into the walls of the oldest part of the castle. Another somehow ended up in the Charter Room. That is the only one to have been found to date and is on display in a bowl inside of a glass box in the Charter Room. The last stone was lost in the River Ythan, which makes it impossible to ever lift the curse.

I have included a photo of the stone on display in the Charter Room. On the day we visited, it seemed to be only slightly moist. Apparently it hasn’t cried quite so much since it has been in the glass case.

While exiting the tour coach before going into the castle, I felt like we were being watched from one of the rooms above. I looked up and took a photo of the window. It was at the corner of where the south range met the west range, just below a little turret and a flag pole with the Scottish flag. I didn’t see anybody at the window, but they could have just stepped out of sight.

We entered the west range into the main hall which contains loads of armor, some taxidermied animals and a few bronze Chinese dogs. It was very interesting room and one of 110 rooms in the entire castle. We went up what was called the Great Wheel Stair to the Dining Room. This was a lovely room (though my photos were a little on the dark side), followed by the Morning Room, which I thought was quite cozy. It seemed like a pleasant room to hang out in. The Charter Room came next and then the large and opulent Library.

In addition to the “weeping stone”, a second curse having to do with the castle involves a secret chamber below the Charter Room. It is said that, should anyone enter the chamber, the Laird of the Castle will die and his wife will go blind. They say that someone did enter the room once upon a time and the curse did happen. So the chamber was completely sealed up to the point that there isn’t even an entrance to it.

After the Prestons, the castle passed to the Meldrums when a Meldrum married a Preston daughter. This was about 1433. The Meldrum family added a tower too. Then the castle was sold to Alexander Seton in 1596 who added the Seton Tower in the middle of the south side of the castle (between the Meldrum and PrestonTowers). He also added the West Range.

Alexander Seton’s wife, Dame Lilias Drummond, kept giving him only daughters, which ticked him off royally. So he imprisoned her in part of the house and starved her to death in order to marry a much younger cousin of Lilias with whom he was enjoying himself. If the room in which she died had been the secret chamber below the Charter Room, it would make sense that the curse would be about killing the Laird and blinding his wife.

Shortly after Lilias died, Alexander married his mistress. On the wedding night, the newlyweds heard some scratching and moaning outside of the window of the bedchamber (four floors up). They thought it was just the wind. In the morning when Alexander opened the shutters and the window, he saw the name of his first wife,” D. Lilias Drummond”, scratched deeply into the stone window sill , outside, upside down, as if done by someone hovering outside of the window.

We were shown the room. It was no longer a bedroom (who would want to sleep there?), but had maps and charts and such scattered around. It seemed to be a storage room. I walked over to the window and took photos of the name carved into the stone. It was the same window from which I had felt we were being watched when we arrived.

A successor of Alexander Seton died in exile in Paris after a Jacobite uprising that had taken place in 1689. At the time of the uprising, the castle had been forfeited to the crown. This would have been the Hanoverians down in London.

It remained a crown property until it was purchased by William Gordon, who was Earl of Aberdeen at the time, in 1733. Forty five years later the Gordon Tower was added to the north end of the west range. Gordon was also the one who moved the main entrance of the castle from the Seton Tower in the middle of the south range to the middle of the west range.

One more family purchased the castle in 1885, adding the final tower. That was the Forbes-Leith family. It was Alexander Leith who built the Leith Tower in 1890.

Another ghostly presence for a short time was Lady Meldrum, who died sometime in the 13^th century. For some strange reason, her dying wish was to be placed in the walls somewhere in the castle. She supposedly loved the castle and didn’t want to leave it. Around 1920 her skeleton was discovered, carefully excavated from the castle and buried in a grave. After that, she haunted the castle as The Grey Lady (Lilias Drummond is called The Green Lady and has been seen here and there too). Once they gave in and put her back in the wall (in one of the bedrooms), she stopped her haunting.

One of the most impressive parts of the castle consists of the enormous Drawing Room in the Gordon Tower and how it opens onto the Gallery in the Leith Tower. The Gallery has several rich tapestries and portraits of King Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria. It also has a fairly large organ. The Gallery is often used for weddings.

Heading back downstairs towards the entrance again, we entered the Billiard Room. This was a more casual, welcoming room with flowered sofas and a table with a tartan cloth.

Next time – Brodie Castle, Culloden Battlefield, and Clava Cairns.

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