Part of the way along Rothes High Street, brown tourist signs point along a road joining it from the west indicating the way to Rothes Golf Club and Rothes Castle. If you are driving and turn into the road, you find yourself face to face with the main gates of Glen Spey Distillery. The route you want is up the very narrow and rather pot holed road that climbs to your left.
As the road climbs it passes below a steep grassy bank to your right, on top of which is a length of stone wall. This single stretch of wall is all that remains of Rothes Castle. If you carry on driving for a couple of hundred yards, a pull off on the right leads into what may originally have been a quarry, and which now serves as a parking area for the castle and the parkland around it.
From here your view of the castle is of the end of the wall, and as you approach you can see the still pronounced ditch which helped guard access to the castle from the west. As you explore the site, you begin to appreciate why this spot was chosen for a castle. It is built on a fairly narrow spur falling steeply to the road on one side and the distillery on the other: combine this with the ditch across the spur you've already encountered, and the result is a strong defensive location.
The wall that remains is massive, measuring some 21m in length and up to 7m in height. The outer face curves out at its foot, and it is obvious that the castle once dominated the settlement which grew up around it. At the north east end of the length of wall is what seems to be a corner. The inner face of the wall carries a number of features which might be interpreted as traces of vaulting of an interior building, and possibly a fireplace. Sharing the top of the spur with the castle but a little distant from it is a relatively modern tin roofed pavilion of unknown purpose.
The origins of Rothes Castle are a little vague. Lands in the area had been granted to the De Pollok family in the late 1100s by William and it seems that in about 1200 Peter de Pollok was commanded by William to build a castle where it could control this stretch of the valley of the River Spey. The result was Rothes Castle, apparently built as a keep of several storeys surrounded by a courtyard and outer wall. On 29 July 1296 Edward I of England, the Hammer of the Scots, stayed at Rothes Castle. In the 1390s the castle and lands passed to the Leslie family, who later became Earls of Rothes.
Rothes Castle was damaged in the 1640s during an attack by Covenanters, and was again damaged by the Marquis of Montrose and his Royalist Army in pursuit of Covenanters in 1645. These attacks appear to have put the castle beyond economical repair, and in 1660 the decision was taken to demolish what was left to prevent its use by "thieves and bandits" who were using it as a base to prey on the area. Much of the stone was later reused when Rothes developed as a planned township in the years after 1766: and if there is any real mystery about Rothes Castle, it is why this one stretch of wall should have survived a process you'd have expected to leave little or no trace on the ground.
Congratulations to Mrs Buccaneer and Mr Buccaneer for being the FTF.
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There are several ways to discover the series of caches around Rothes:
Golf Course Trail and Dounie Experience – the shorter, easier walk:
Start / End: GC5EV46 Remains of Rothes Castle (wee parking spot nearby)
GC6PWWG Hole No 10 GC5EV4H Rothes Hideaway Follow the gravel trail
- Are you in the mood for a private secret Bonus Cache: N 57 31 111 W 3 14 087 - Hint: check the pattern here as well, especially the covered one. I would have loved to publish this cache however the distance to his „twin“ is just about 85 m. So it is a private secret bonus cache just for the fun of caching. Enjoy.
– turn back and follow the larger trail downhill to the signpost near N 57 31 092 W 3 14 272 towards Dounie and Fairie's Well
GC5EV5V The Linn Waterfall – Rothes
GC6PV0P Dounie Experience – Enough Pattern?
GC6PV0A Dounie Experiene – Down by the River
GC6PV02 Dounie Experiene – The lonely Piper>
A wee detour to your left will bring you to
GC6PTZP Dounie Experience – The Bridge
Back on the main path follow towards
GC6PTZ2 Dounie Experience – Needs Maintenance
You will have to cross the foodbridge, walk on the road between the different distillery buildings. Keep in mind you are very close to the answers to solve GC60EKD Key to Barrel No 5 – however to go for the final will be another detour uphill to reach the site.
A bit further down the road, not far from GC1Y9BA Water of Life cache placed by Scottish Hunter you will see a signpost towards Rothes Castle, a small foodbridge will bring you to the other side of the burn again – just follow the obvious path and you will soon be back at your start.
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The "Tough Tour" with Dounie Experience or Golf Course Trail: the longer tougher one:
Start / End: GC5EV46 Remains of Rothes Castle (wee parking spot nearby)
Follow a wee foodpath from the „castle grounds“ leading downhill towards GC1Y9BA Water of Life cache placed by Scottish Hunter
Read the listing for the „Letterbox“ cache GC60EKD Key to Barrel No 5 and answer the questions and follow the road near the warehouses uphill to go for the final of this cache.
Follow that trail further uphill for
GC60EGG The Lost Sight Spade
GC60EFY Sank into Oblivion
Return the path you came uphill, enjoy the view for a while to Waypoint N 57°31'36.0" W 3°14'12.2" There are some gates but you are welcome to use this path uphill towards the woods. This path is not used very often and parts of it are heavy overgrown.
GC6QD6W Tough Tour - Seafield Estates
Now a rough part begins, there used to be a path uphill, but it seams to be disappeared in the meantime. So it's up on you which way you will use, but be aware it will be steep, very steep!
GC6QD7B Tough Tour - Last Refugium
In case the this section might be too steep for you, there is an alternative way to walk. From the Cache "Seafield Estates", stay close to the fence and follow the fence towards
GC6QD7K Tough Tour – Where to go now?
You will reach this site from the larger trail near the cache Refugium as well.
Good news from here... you will go downhill for a while.
Due to the massive wood felling here the last years you will have an amazing view over the countryside.
GC6QEFC Tough Tour – For the view
GC6QD87 Tough Tour - In the Valley
Follow the path towards the waypoint N 57 31 092 W 3 14 272 with the signpost nearby.
From here you can either walk back towards Rothes using the path to your left towards Dounie and Fairie's Well and find the caches of the Dounie Experience Series:
GC5EV5V The Linn Waterfall – Rothes
GC6PV0P Dounie Experience – Enough Pattern?
GC6PV0A Dounie Experiene – Down by the River
GC6PV02 Dounie Experiene – The lonely Piper
A wee detour to your left will bring you to
GC6PTZP Dounie Experience – The Bridge
Back on the main path follow towards
GC6PTZ2 Dounie Experience – Needs Maintenance
and from here back the way you came from The Rothes Castle
Or alternative: Follow the signpost near N 57 31 092 W 3 14 272 towards Rothes Centre Follow the gravel trail -
Are you in the mood to log a TB - so discover the "Discover Me" TB hidden at: N 57 31 111 W 3 14 087 - Hint: check the pattern here as well, especially the covered one. I would have loved to publish this cache here however the distance to his „twin“ is just about 85 m. So it is a private secret bonus just for the fun of caching, however you are welcome to sign the logbook here as well. Enjoy.
Now turn back towards:
GC5EV4H Rothes Hideaway
GC6PWWG Hole No 10
GC5EV46 Remains of Rothes Castle – the start / end point