Gight | |
---|---|
Gight Castle | |
Location within Aberdeenshire | |
OS grid reference | NJ825401 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | ELLON |
Postcode district | AB41 |
Dialling code | 01651 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Gight is the name of an estate in the parish of Fyvie in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. It is best known as the location of the 16th-century Gight (or Formartine) Castle, [1] ancestral home of Lord Byron.
Gight Castle is about 4 miles (6.4 km) miles east of Fyvie, just north of the River Ythan, and 1 mile (1.6 km) mile south of Cottown. [2]
The castle was built to an L-shaped plan, [3] probably in the 1570s [2] by George Gordon, the second laird. Ranges of outbuildings were built later. [2]
The tower has a vaulted basement, and a turnpike stair at the end of a long passage. There was a hall on the first floor. [2]
George Gordon had no children, and the property passed to his brother, James Gordon of Cairnbannoch and Gight. His son Alexander married Agnes Beaton, daughter of David Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews. Alexander was killed at Dundee in 1579, and his daughter Elizabeth married George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar in 1590. [4]
It was later occupied by Catherine Gordon Byron, the mother of Lord Byron, but she sold it in 1787 to George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen to pay off her debts. It was then occupied by the Earl's son, George Gordon, Lord Haddo, until the latter's early death in 1791, since when it has been uninhabited. It was designated a scheduled ancient monument in 1965. [3]
The Gight Woods is a protected natural forest. [5]
It is said that the ruins are haunted by a piper who disappeared while exploring an underground passageway. [6]
There is a local legend that Gight Castle was cursed by Scottish prophet Thomas the Rhymer [7] who proclaimed “At Gight three men by sudden death shall dee, And after that the land shall lie in lea”. Almost 500 years later, three men were killed and the prophecy fulfilled.
The nearby river below the ruins is said to contain a treasure hidden by the 7th Laird and guarded by the Devil. [7]
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, in the County of Aberdeen, in the County of Meath and in the County of Argyll, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 January 1916 for John Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen.
George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly, styled Earl of Enzie from 1599 to 1636, eldest son of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly by Lady Henrietta Stewart, daughter of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, born at Huntly Castle, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in Scotland was brought up in England as a Protestant, and later created Viscount Aboyne by Charles I.
Buchan is an area of north-east Scotland, historically one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by the council in 1996, when the Aberdeenshire council area was created under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994. The council area was formed by merging three districts of the Grampian Region: Banff and Buchan, Gordon and Kincardine and Deeside. The committee area of Buchan was formed from part of the former district of Banff and Buchan.
Ellon is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately 16 miles north of Aberdeen, lying on the River Ythan, which has one of the few undeveloped river estuaries on the eastern coast of Scotland. It is in the ancient region of Formartine. Its name is believed to derive from the Gaelic term Eilean, an island, on account of the presence of an island in the River Ythan, which offered a convenient fording point. In 1707 it was made a burgh of barony for the Earl of Buchan.
Fyvie is a village in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Aberdeenshire or the County of Aberdeen is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. The area of the county, excluding the city of Aberdeen itself, is also a lieutenancy area. The county borders Kincardineshire, Angus and Perthshire to the south, Inverness-shire and Banffshire to the west, and the North Sea to the north and east. It has a coast-line of 65 miles (105 km).
Gordon is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), which elects one member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency first returned a member in the 1983 general election, but has undergone boundary changes since that date.
Clan Gordon, also known as the House of Gordon, is a Scottish clan. The chief of the clan is the powerful Earl of Huntly, and now also the Marquess of Huntly. During the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th century, the Gordons supported William Wallace in the cause of independence. In the 15th century, the chiefship of the clan passed to an heiress, who married into the Seton family and her male descendants assumed the surname Gordon and continued as chiefs of the clan. The Gordons assisted in defeating the rebellion of the Earl of Douglas also in the 15th century. In the 16th century, the Gordons as Catholics feuded with their Protestant neighbors the Clan Forbes and also defeated at the Battle of Glenlivet, the Protestant Earl of Argyll. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of the 17th century, the Gordons supported the Royalist cause. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the Clan Gordon was Jacobite. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, their chief, then the Duke of Gordon, pledged his support to the British-Hanoverian Government, but his clan remained Jacobite.
Formartine is a committee area in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This district extends north from the River Don to the River Ythan. It has a population of 36,478.
Methlick is a village in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated on the River Ythan 11.2 kilometres (7.0 mi) north-west of Ellon.
The Battle of Glenlivet was a Scottish clan battle fought on 3 October 1594 near Glenlivet, Moray, Scotland. It was fought between Protestant forces loyal to King James VI of Scotland who were commanded by Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, against Catholic forces who were commanded by George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly, and Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll. The Catholics won a decisive victory in the battle, but in the aftermath were subdued by King James.
Clan Leask is a Scottish clan.
Maryculter House is a historic house in the village of Maryculter, or Kirkton of Maryculter, in the Lower Deeside area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Clan Forbes is a Highland Scottish clan from Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Elizabeth Gordon, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scotland's leading Catholic magnate during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1562, Elizabeth encouraged her husband to raise forces against Queen Mary which led to his being outlawed, and after his death, his titles forfeited to the Crown. Elizabeth's son Sir John Gordon was executed for having taken part in his father's rebellion.
Formartine United Football Club are a Scottish senior association football club from Pitmedden, Aberdeenshire currently playing in the Highland Football League. They joined the Highland League for the 2009–10 season, having been accepted into the League on 25 February 2009.
Clan Gardyne is a lowland Scottish clan from Angus. The clan does currently have a chief, Samuel Edward Britton Gardyne recognised by the Court of the Lord Lyon, therefore it is considered an clan. With the clan spreading as far as New Zealand. Were the current chief lives.
Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun (1538–1594) was a Scottish landowner and rebel.
James Crichton of Frendraught or Frendraucht was a Scottish landowner involved in a fire on 18 October 1630. Eight guests were killed at Frendraught Castle and arson was suspected. The facts of the case were widely disputed.