Castle Fraser

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Castle Fraser, a grand old mansion in Cluny parish, central Aberdeenshire, 3 miles ESE of Monymusk station. A six-storied quadrangular building, erected at different periods between 1454 and 1618, it has a square tower to the W, and a round one, 100 feet high, to the SE; and it is one of the finest specimens of Flemish architecture in Scotland. Its original name was Muchells, Muchal, or Muchil-in-Mar; and from 1633 to 1720 four Frasers of Muchells bore the title of Baron Fraser, the second being a zealous Covenanter, and the fourth as zealous a Jacobite. The latter was succeeded by his stepson, Charles Fraser, 'Old Inverallochie,' whose son and namesake, commanding the Frasers at Culloden, was brutally shot by order of the Duke of Cumberland; and whose present descendant, Fred. Mackenzie Fraser, Esq. (b. 1831; suc. 1871), holds 4247 acres in the shire, valued at £3697 per annum.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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