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[Cairbulg Castle - Continued from page25]

and successor in 1619, sold the Castle and lands of Cairnbulg to Andrew Fraser of Stonywood,
father of the first Lord Fraser of Muchalls. It would appear that he who thus disposed of
the estates, had succeeded to them on the death of his grandfather, which took place
on the 12th of April 1569. In the following year (1570), he erected the castle at Kinnairds Head
where he resided till his death, in 1623. Spalding, in his History of the Troubles in Scotland
in 1644, mentions the Castle of Cairnbulg twice, and, in both instances, in connection with
its then proprietor, the Lord Fraser of Muchalls, a strenuous supporter of the Solemn League
and Covenant. In the year 1703. Charles, the last Lord Fraser, sold the castle and estate to
Colonel John Buchan; and in 1739, it came, by purchase, into the possession of Alexander
Aberdein Esq. whose son, in 1775. disposed of it to George, the third Earl of Aberdeen, who,
at his death, in 1801, bequeathed it to the present proprietor. John Gordon, Esq. of Cairnbulg
There is a remarkably fine fascia under the parapet of the tower; and another rather
singular feature, is a hole piercing the lintel of the principal entrance, and running
through the heart of the wall to a chamber above. The purpose for which this was intended
must be, in a great measure, conjectural. It may have been to telegraph information to or from
above; or it may have been to defend the door from the assaults of the besieger.
It is to be regretted that the restoration of this baronial residence had become impracticable
before it came into the possession of its present proprietor, otherwise we
might have hoped to have seen it once more in much of its pristine stateliness
and beauty. We can hardly imagine a more animated scene or finer view than that
which a walk round the battlemented Tower of Cairnbulg Castle affords. At a certain
season of the year hundreds of herring boats may be seen shooting out from the harbour of
Fraserburgh: and an occasional steamer with its long line of level smoke, ploughing its
way down the Moray Firth. Numerous vessels scattered over The bosom of the ocean - their
sails, here and there, bright with the rays of the sun, elsewhere deep in the shadows and
dark as pitch. The gracefully curved sea-beach: the Water of Philorth creeping under the walls [No. 2 [ ]]
[Continued page 27]