Findlater Castle

Local highlight

A dramatic fragment of a clifftop castle on the Moray coast, once a seat of the Ogilvie family

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Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground

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Findlater is hard to credit when you first spot it: the broken remains of a castle clinging to a steep rocky promontory that juts into the sea, the walls almost indistinguishable from the crag they stand on. The Ogilvies, later Earls of Findlater and Seafield, held this coast and had their stronghold here from the 15th century, before moving inland to more comfortable homes. Very little is left, and what remains sits in a genuinely dangerous spot, so most people view it from the cliff path above rather than attempting the scramble down. It’s a short walk from the small village of Sandend, with Sunnyside Beach just along the coast and Cullen a little further west on the Moray Coast Trail.

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