Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle rises from the flat Laich of Moray five miles north-west of Elgin, and is one of Scotland's finest motte-and-bailey castles, the best preserved of its kind in state care. Freskin, a Fleming sent north by David I after the men of Moray rose in 1130, raised the first earth-and-timber stronghold here; his descendants, the de Moravias, became ancestors of the earls of Sutherland and Clan Murray. About 1270 the castle passed to Sir Reginald Cheyne, who probably built the square stone keep on the motte and the curtain wall round the bailey; the keep was abandoned by about 1350, perhaps because it was slipping down the mound, and part of it has visibly slumped since. The whole site sits inside a water-filled moat. Reviewers praise the free car park and summer coffee van, walk round the moat to the older bridge now that the main one is shut, and climb the very steep slope for wide views.