Kildrummy Castle

Kildrummy Castle and the Jacobites

Kildrummy Castle was built in the 13th century and for around 2 centuries it was the home of the Earls of Mar. It was then inhabited at different times by the Stewarts, the Elphinstones and the Erskines.

In 1626, The Erskine Earls of Mar finally won control of Kildrummy Castle. They were sometimes openly and other times secretly loyal to the Catholic King James VII and II following his exile in 1688, and John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, led the Jacobite rising of 1715.

Kildrummy was one of the bases Mar used during the rising, which aimed to put James VII’s son, James VIII in the Jacobite line back on the thrones of Scotland, England and Ireland. When that rising failed, the earl went into exile, and Kildrummy’s days as a noble residence came to an end.

Abandoned in 1716, Kildrummy castle was deliberately dismantled as a source of stone for other building projects and it continued to be used as little more than a quarry until the early 1800s.