#dunnideer

[musingsfromastonehead]

Dunnideer, November Morning

Dunnideer, November MorningFlaring, the dawn breaks wide as the sun spills gold on the hilltops,burning the night away in a firestorm, eddies of crimson,embers of ochre caught in the whirl of a sky-woven current.Far to the east, where the ruins of Dunnideer shoulder the morning,walls, tumbled low, still cast their defiance against the horizon,mute in the stillness before light overtakes them,…

Dunnideer, November Morning

[lost-in-centuries-long-gone]

Dunnydeer by RiserDog on Flickr.

Dunnydeer Castle, now ruined, was a tower house located near Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was built c.1260 partially from the remains of an existing vitrified hill fort in the same location.

[weavingthetapestry]

Places to Go: Castle of Dunnideer, Aberdeenshire

Set high above the nearby village of Insch, Dunnideer castle is an interesting, if small ruin in the Garioch, Aberdeenshire. It sits at the centre of an ancient hillfort, constructed in two phases around two thousand years ago, and has it's fair share of legend, including the common tale that it was the site of one of King Arthur's courts. Other legends state that Dunnideer was the stronghold of a ninth-century King of Scots known as Giric, whose actual biography is obscure, but has been said in many stories to have seized the throne from his predecessor and imprisoned him in the Bass of Inverurie. 

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find much more on the actual history of the mediaeval castle, though the hill-fort has been the subject of some intensive study. Canmore posits that it may have been constructed by David, Earl of Huntingdon, the younger brother of Kings Malcolm IV and William, and later made Lord of Garioch. The first time it may appear in the records though is as a castle of a knight named John de Balliol in 1260. Other than this, I have been unable to find out any other information (though feel free to let me know) but it is still a rather good example of a thirteenth century castle, which are sadly thin on the ground in Scotland.