Auchindoun Castle

Auchindoun Castle stands alone on a hilltop above Glen Fiddich two and a half miles from Dufftown, a lonely and imposing ruin in a landscape almost empty of settlements, reached only on foot up a rough farm track. It was possibly built in the 1400s by Thomas Cochrane, the favourite of James III hanged by the nobles in 1482. A fairly sophisticated stronghold with a series of fine stone vaults, it passed to the Ogilvys and then the Gordons, and in 1571 Gordons from Auchindoun burned Corgarff Castle with everyone inside, a deed remembered in the ballad Edom o Gordon; William Mackintosh burned Auchindoun in revenge and lost his head for it, inspiring another song. Derelict by 1725, it was quarried for Balvenie House in Dufftown. Reviewers park in the small car park for four or five cars, walk about twenty minutes up the glen with some climbing, to a fine ruin with sweeping views.