Drum in Aberdeenshire This castle in the secluded country between Peterculter and the Hill of Fare speaks with two voices. It consists of the 13th century Tower of Drum, one of the very first and certainly among the most famous of medieval Scottish tower-houses, a simple rectangle with battlements and rounded corners 70 ft high, whose walls at basement level are 12 Ft thick, and linked to it a handsome Renaissance mansion with dormer windows and crow-stepped gables built in 1619.
The Tower of Drum was a royal keep in the ancient Forest of Drum, to which there is reference as early as 1247. The lands of Drum were bestowed by King Robert 1 on his armour-bearer and clerk register William de Irwin in February 1323, and lrvines have inhabited the Tower and its Jacobean adjunct ever since.
- Drum Castle Postcode AB31 5EY
- Drum Castle Geolocation Latitude 57.0950° N Longitude -2.3379° W
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The former banqueting-hall of the tower, now entered by a doorway cut through walls 11 ft thick from the first floor of the Jacobean wing, is a great vaulted chamber occupying one entire storey of the keep. It is in use as a library and billiard room.
On the barrel-vaulted ceiling are shields bearing the arms of families linked to the lrvines.
