Midmar Castle

#51 Midmar Castle
Post-Reformation Tower
Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
1411, 1570 & 17th century
This is NOT an official Lego site

Midmar Castle is a lovely Z-plan Scottish tower of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. It is located in the Mid-Marr [Black Forest] between Aberdeen and the Grampian Mountains. The original estate probably belonged to the Browns from the 13th century. They presumably built the first castle on the property, a now ruinous motte castle called Cunnigar. The Browns built a new tower, originally called Ballogie, about ½ mile south of Cunnigar in 1411. It is the square core of what is now called Midmar Castle. In 1468 the two towers and the entire estate passed to Alexander Gordon, the first Earl of Huntly. In 1570 the Gordon family hired George Bell of the famed Mid-Marr school of granite masons to enlarge the castle. These masons also built Craigievar, Crathes, Frazer and Drum Castles in the same region. What George Bell produced was a beautiful but also defensive Z-plan tower of 6-storys. At the entrance of the castle estate, in the old churchyard, lies a granite slab inscribed "HEIR LYIS GEORGE BELL MEASON DECEISIT IN BALOGY AND 1575." He bearly lived long enough to see his work completed!. Cunnigar Tower was apparently abandoned in the late 16th century due to the plague.

Severe damage occurred to the castle in 1590 but it was repaired. In 1620 Midmar Castle was sold to Alexander Forbes. Later the castle passed on to the Grant family who added the modern ranges and raised porch in the 17th or 18th centuries [sources vary]. The castle was then variously owned, finally by the Gordons of Cluny and eventually abandoned about 1850. The castle was reoccupied in the 1970s and carefully restored with the assistance of Historic Scotland. The privately owned castle estate includes 5 acres of parkland around the castle and 140 acres of farmland and a large deer farm. Midmar came on the real estate market as of February 27, 2009 - with an asking price in the range of £5,000,000 [about US$7,000,000]. If you buy this gorgeous castle, please invite me to visit!

This is the current set of plans for the original Z-plan portions of Midmar, with the exception that there appears to be a modern doorway in the south portion of the round tower at ground level. I put back the original window. If someone really wants to build the entire current castle, I'll forward the larger plans with modern kitchen, billiard room, etc. The current bathroom setup seems less than optimal to me, particularly with nine bedrooms to the old tower (see below).

Ground Floor	First Floor	Second Floor	Third Floor	Fourth Floor	Fifth Floor/Roof

Photos of the Lego Model Built April 1994

Northeast View	Northwest View	South Southwest View	Southwest View

Build Your Own

East Elevation	North Elevation	South Elevation	West Elevation


An engraving of Midmar from the south	An engraving of Midmar from the north	My first plan of the Ground Floor (Note the modern alterations.)