Ardclach Bell Tower

Ardclach Bell Tower stands alone on a hilltop above the old parish church of Ardclach in the Findhorn valley, nine miles south of Nairn: a rare little fortified belfry, dated 1655 on its wall. It was probably built by the Covenanter Alexander Brodie of Lethen, whose estate Montrose had plundered after the Battle of Auldearn in 1645, perhaps as a watchtower and prison. The harled two-storey tower is about four metres square with a slate roof, and the small belfry on its gable was probably added later to call worshippers to the church below. The windowless vaulted ground floor, with its small door, was a prison; a narrow stone stair climbs to a room with a fireplace flanked by pistol holes, and the initials MGB above the fireplace probably stand for Brodie's second wife, Margaret Grant. Reviewers advise parking in the grassy lay-by below the tower's steps rather than taking the narrow hairpin road down to the church, which is unsuitable for motorhomes.