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I have a soft spot for ancient ruins. Since I moved up to Scotland, I have already visited over 50 castles, ruined houses, brochs and ancient sites. Many of them were simply "on the way" to mountains
, others required separate trips. A few times we planned castle-to-castle trials around particular area, like the Caithness Trip (
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20630). My ever favourite old ruin is Duffus Castle near Lossiemouth, but I'd appreciate any atmospheric historical building - from big mansions like New Slains to little charming spots like Ardvreck or Rait. Every one of these trips makes a fantastic journey back in time.
The one I'm going to write today is - surprisingly! - not a popular ruin. Personally, it upsets me that some old castles get a lot of care and attention whereas some others stand neglected, forgotten and derelict
...
Two years ago I found "The Castles of Scotland" by Martin Covenrty under the Christmas tree. Since then, the book has been used so extensively that some pages are flying loose, it's been stained with coffee and a few times I fell asleep reading it late at night
Together with "The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century" by D. MacGibbon and T. Ross (1887), the two books are my main sources of info about castles and ancient sites worth visiting, plus whatever I can find online. And here is a story about an old ruin, completely forgotten and God-forsaken, a spooky place called...
BOYNE CASTLE
I first came across this name in Covenrty's book and to be honest, I almost overlooked it. There's only a short note about the ruin and it states as follows:
"Boyne Castle consist of a very ruinous and overgrown 16-th century courtyard castle, with four round corner towers and a twin-turreted gatehouse. There is a ditch, and the entrance is by a raised and walled causeway. Ranges of buildings were enclosed within the courtyard. It was once a fine place, and and there were two walled gardens and orchards."
What caught my eye was a re-print drawing from MacGibbon & Ross, showing the ruin from NW:
I had a look in the latter book and discovered that it actually contained quite a long chapter about Boyne, with drawings and plans of the site plus its detailed history. I was fascinated by the castle and immediately put it on my "to visit" list.
Last Sunday was a semi-good day, cloudy over most mountains and strong winds predicted for higher ground. But the Moray Coast forecast looked good enough to pay a visit to Boyne. The castle is situated just east of Portsoy, to the north of B9139. Finding a place to park can be a bit tricky, as the tarmac road is very narrow and no laybys anywhere, but there is some space to leave car on the crossroads next to a farm:
The castle is almost invisible from the road, especially in summer months, you have to be very observant to spot one of the towers peeking out from the woods:
From the crossroads it's only a 0.5 km stroll along the road first and then on an overgrown path to the ruins:
The path to the ruins seems non-existent to start with but after diving into the vegetation I managed to find it... Hey, here it is! Follow me!
Wet, overgrown and not very convincing, but believe me this is the right route...
The path takes you to a wooden gate - the ruins are hidden in the woods just past it.
A tight squeeeezzzze:
I knew this was going to be a spooky place but, in my deepest dreams, I didn't expect what I saw. big, massive, tumbling stony walls and towers emerged suddenly from the vegetation... My jaw dropped almost to the ground... Wow!!!!!
The first encounter with Boyne:
I walked towards the closest tower, looked up..up...up... and felt a bit dizzy!
Then I checked inside the ground floor room in the tower - it was half filled with rubble:
I'm not an expert on history and archaeology (I'm a biologist, for heaven's sake
) so I'll let experts speak on my behalf. MacGibbon and Ross described Boyne as follows:
"This castle is of considerable interest, from the fact that at first sight it appears to differ essentially in plan from all the other castles of the period in the north of Scotland.
It occupies a strong and picturesque site, about two miles east from Portsoy, on the top of a precipitous promontory on the south side of the Boyne Water, at a point where the river makes a sudden bend in the deep and rocky dell through which it flows. The castle is thus well defended by the nature of the ground on the north, east, and west sides, while on the south side it is artificially protected by a dry moat nearly 60 feet wide."
Indeed, the ruins are surrounded by the deep gorge from three directions - a great defensive spot! Though the castle doesn't seem to have been built as a fortress, rather as a 16-th century mansion house.
What one notices immediately are the multiple towers, some of them must have been staircases.
The south-west view of the castle according to MacGibbon & Ross:
Another old drawing, showing the castle in its better days, is here:
http://www.scottishcastlesassociation.com/rec-id-277-cat_id-1-highlight-2.htmI tried to position myself in the same spot to take a comparative picture but it was impossible due to the vegetation - the castle is so overgrown that it's difficult to move about the ruins. Not to mention the annoying stinging nettles and prickly thistles everywhere. Ouch! Don't visit this site in shorts!
A few shots of the ruins from south-west. This was the main entrance side, two of the towers were gatehouses:
OK, some more professional description:
"The castle itself is evidently of one design, and has been built at one time. It consists of a courtyard, forming a parallelogram measuring 89 feet from north to south and 104 feet from east to west, with a projecting round tower 22 feet in diameter at each angle. The walls of enceinte vary, but average about 5 feet in thickness. There have been ranges of buildings on the east, west, and south sides of the quadrangle, but not, apparently, on the north side, which was enclosed with a wall. The walls of the west side are still standing, but those of the south side are greatly destroyed, while the eastern range has been almost entirely demolished.
Unfortunately the freestone dressings of the doors and windows have nearly, without a single exception, been torn out and removed, so that few details are left to enable a judgment to be formed of the style and date of the finishings."
We scrambled carefully to the first floor - it contained the main hall. I was overwhelmed...
Gazing through one of the open holes that once were windows, I saw the eastern corner tower - and a huge tree trunk growing from inside of it... Good Lord, how long has this site been neglected?
The SE tower is almost gone, now only some skeletal remains...
The fireplace was on the opposite wall:
In the NW corner, another tree found its home...
The SW corner from the inside:
MacGibbon and Ross state what follows:
"The hall and withdrawing-room seem to have occupied the whole of the west range, with a private room off each in the angle towers. A small stair has been corbelled out in the angle of the south-west tower at a later date, which may have conducted to the owner's private apartments over the hall. But the first and upper floors are so entirely ruined internally that nothing can clearly be ascertained as to the arrangements."
The NE tower is still relatively safe and one can venture inside:
A short look from a different perspective: the first floor from inside the tower:
This little room (probably a private chamber) has two windows and a small fireplace:
Definitely not ancient drawings!
The ruin is big and the fact that it's so overgrown and tumbling only increases the spooky impression. I don't really believe in ghosts and ghouls, but I wouldn't dare spend a night in Boyne Castle!
Back to the reality, it was a nice sunny day and we continued to explore the site. We descended back to the ground level, though it was a bit tricky in places...
We somehow managed to make our way through the stinging nettles to the main courtyard. Now we could see the SE corner, the most damaged part of the complex:
Trees, trees, growing everywhere! It is a scary thought, that the trees will eventually tear this beautiful ruin apart!
The eastern side from below:
From the courtyard, there are four entrances on the ground level - they lead to well-preserved, vaulted cellars:
MacGibbon & Ross description:
"The basement floor of this range is the only part of the castle still in fair preservation, and is divided into vaulted cellars, each furnished with a door and window to the courtyard. The kitchen alone can be distinguished in the eastern range, from its fireplace being preserved."
...is a bit out of date, doors and windows in the cellars are long gone, but the chambers themselves are safe to explore:
The first cellar:
The second cellar:
The last cellar (the northernmost one) was obviously used as a kitchen, with remains of the oven on the northern wall. It connects to another room, on the groundfloor of the NW tower:
The oven:
Inside the kitchen:
Eventually we emerged outside the building and decided to circle it to get some good snapshots from the distance. We suffered the attacks of some more aggressive plants
but the result was satisfying...
The Northern side of the castle, still looking very impressive:
A few steps back and we can fully appreciate the size of this ruin:
The outer corner tower:
MacGibbon and Ross give a short statement on the history of the site:
"Little is known of the history of this building. The Thanedom of Boyne was granted by David n. in 1368 to Sir John Edmonstone. In
I486 the estate passed by marriage to Sir John Ogilvie, in whose family it long remained. Sir George Ogilvie of Dunlugas acquired the estate in 1575 from the elder branch of the family, and it continued in his family till purchased by the Earl of Findlater in 1731."
When wandering about this mind-boggling place, one has to wonder why it's in such a bad state, why wasn't it preserved, even if only as a ruin, for visitors to enjoy?
It is obvious that some parts of the castle are on the very edge of collapse and if nothing is done soon to protect this charming ruin, it will soon be gone!!!
We walked around the castle and took even more photies from every possible angle - enjoy it while it still lasts...
The western side:
A few little details of masonry:
NW tower from the outside:
Kevin was just as bewildered as me...
One last sentence from MacGibbon and Ross, I think this sums up all my thoughts and feelings about Boyne:
"In any case the design is remarkable, and it is greatly to be regretted that this interesting edifice has been suffered to fall into such a state of decay."
Don't forget that this statement was written over a century ago!
We had to leave eventually and though I'm smiling in this photo, I felt a sudden wave of sadness when we walked back to the car...
I don't know who owns this site or are there any chances whatsoever to consolidate it. The vegetation is pretty aggressive, especially trees growing inside the walls. Some basic clearing would certainly help... It hurts my heart to think that an ancient monument like this may disappear soon - only because nobody bothered to do anything
I hope you enjoyed this little journey, dear reader. Thanks for taking your time to read it.
