Ormond Castle: A Royal and Aristocratic Stronghold above Avoch
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Scotland
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Ormond Castle, also known as Avoch Castle, was a royal and aristocratic stronghold above Avoch in Scotland, United Kingdom. Dating from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, it was rebuilt between 1200 and 1214 as a Norman-style fortress during the reign of William the Lion, king of Scotland from 1165 to 1214. Its position above the Moray Firth gave it command of the sea approach to Inverness.
Royal Fortress and Medieval Lords
The castle may have been one of two royal fortresses built on the Black Isle during William the Lion’s reign. By the thirteenth century, it was held by the de Moravias of Petty, who governed extensive lands across Moray from the stronghold.
At the beginning of the Wars of Scottish Independence, the late-thirteenth- and early-fourteenth-century conflicts in which Scotland resisted English attempts to impose political control, Andrew de Moravia gathered the men of Moray at Ormond Castle. They joined King John Balliol after Balliol’s humiliation before Edward I of England. Sir Andrew Murray, a Scottish nobleman and military leader, died at the castle in 1338.
Inheritance and the Earldom of Ormonde
In 1362, Joanna of Bothwell, heiress of the de Moravias of Petty, married Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway and later the 3rd Earl of Douglas. Through this marriage, Archibald claimed her estates and titles de jure uxoris, meaning that a husband exercised rights or claimed property through his wife’s inheritance.
Ormond Castle became the caput, or principal seat and administrative center, of the Barony of Ormonde. In 1445, the barony was raised to an earldom for Hugh Douglas, the third son of James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas. After the Black Douglases were defeated at the Battle of Arkinholm in 1455 and their earl was executed, their properties were forfeited. The Crown then took Ormond Castle and granted it to George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, who belonged to the rival Red Douglas branch. The Black and Red Douglases were competing branches of the powerful Douglas family, with the Red branch becoming dominant after 1455.
The title Earl of Ormonde was recreated in 1651 for the elder son of the 1st Marquess of Douglas. It became extinct in 1715 when Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, died from wounds received at the Battle of Sheriffmuir.
Later Ownership and Destruction
David Chalmers, Lord Ormond, owned the castle from 1560 to 1568. His support for Mary, Queen of Scots, forced him into exile in 1568, after which he sold Ormond Castle and the adjoining estates of Suddie and Avoch.
Andrew Munro, 5th of Milntown, acquired the castle and the lands of Suddie and Avoch in 1568 under feu from the Earls of Angus and Ormonde. During his father’s lifetime, he was also known as Andrew Munro of Newmore.
Oliver Cromwell’s troops destroyed Ormond Castle in the 1650s, during the period when Cromwell, an English military and political leader who commanded Parliamentarian forces in the English Civil Wars, built his fortress at Inverness. The castle is now a Scheduled Monument, a legally protected archaeological or historic site designated for its national importance.
Remains
Hilltop Fortress
Ormond Castle occupied the summit of Ormond Hill above Avoch on the Black Isle. It was a strong rectangular fortress in the Norman style, with square towers at its corners. Its elevated setting overlooked the Moray Firth and the sea route to Inverness. The site is now a ruined, largely vanished castle, with the surviving remains preserving the location and broad character of this medieval hilltop stronghold.
