Corse Castle
Corse Castle near Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire, now ruined, was a fortress and centre of a landed estate in the north-east of Scotland. The castle stands by the Corse Burn, around 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north-west of Lumphanan.
Corse was a property of the Forbes family. In the 16th century the original house on the site was destroyed by bandits in a raid. The laird of the day, Sir William Forbes, is reputed to have said of his projected new castle "Please God I will build me such a house as thieves will need to knock at ere they enter."[1] The present castle was subsequently erected by William, and bears his initials with the date 1581.[2]
William Forbes had seven sons, of whom the eldest, Patrick (1564–1635), was born at the castle before the rebuilding. In 1618 he was appointed Bishop of Aberdeen, serving until his death. The second son, William, a merchant, bought and completed nearby Craigievar Castle in the 1620s. The third son John Forbes (c.1565–1634) also entered the church. The sixth son, Arthur, settled in Ireland and was created a baronet.[3] Patrick's second son, theologian John Forbes (1593–1648), inherited Corse in 1635, and died there in 1648, having opposed the National Covenant and been exiled for three years.[4]
In The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland (1887), David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross say:
This ruinous castle is pleasantly situated in a retired locality about three miles north from Lumphanan Station on the Deeside Railway. The Corse Burn, which runs through the hollow adjoining, has been dammed up, and forms a fine sheet of water to the south of the castle... The property has long belonged to the Forbeses, and the present building was erected in 1581 by William Forbes, the father of Patrick, the well-known Bishop of Aberdeen. The date and his initials are on the lintel of the entrance doorway.[5]
The castle is described by Historic Scotland as "a remarkable survival of the compact 16th century, Scottish Z-plan castle",[2] although W. D. Simpson described it as "an unusual combination of L and Z plans."[6]
Notes
- ↑ Deborah Howard, Scottish architecture: Reformation to Restoration, 1560-1660 (1995), p. 50
- 1 2 "Corse Castle, listed building report". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ↑ Sprott & MacDonald (2004)
- ↑ Mullan, 2004
- ↑ David MacGibbon, Thomas Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century, volume 2 (D. Douglas, 1887), p. 265
- ↑ "Corse Castle". Canmore. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- Mullan, David George (2004), "Forbes, John, of Corse (1593–1648)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9836, retrieved 12 February 2014
- Sprott, G. W.; MacDonald, Alan R. (2004), "Forbes, John (c.1565–1634)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9835, retrieved 12 February 2014
Coordinates: 57°09′19″N 2°44′52″W / 57.1552°N 2.7477°W