Scottish Castles Association

Macduff's Castle - both towers standing in this view of 1910 - castle doocot in foreground

Macduff's Castle - May 2013 and only a fragment remains

The red sandstone walls of  Macduff's Castle stand above the shore at East Wemyss. Beneath the castle are the famous Wemyss Caves and their Pictish wall carvings. 

The castle had consisted of a massive tower of the 14th century together with a more refined one of 16th, linked by a wing. A barmkin, liberally equipped with wide mouthed gun holes, encompassed the whole.

Intensive coal mining had caused the walls to crack. These were reinforced with brickwork but in the 1930s the castle was classed as ‘extremely dangerous’.

By the 1960s its condition was so critical that it was destroyed by explosives. A sole fragment remains admist yellow flowering Alexander.

Article by SCA member Brian McGarrigle