Benholm Castle

Heritage listing

Category A Date Added 18/08/1972 Last Date Amended 21/08/2017 Local Authority Aberdeenshire Parish Benholm NGR NO 80405 70430 Coordinates 380405, 770430 — Description: Benholm Castle is a ruined late 15th century tower, four storeys high and square in plan, linked by a stone wall to a neoclassical mansion house of about 1760 with late 18th century ancillary buildings forming a courtyard. The tower is built of red sandstone rubble with ashlar quoins. The west wall and parts of the north and south walls of the tower are standing. To the west elevation is an entrance doorway of about 1790. There is a tall parapet supported on lobed corbels. There are round bartizans in the southwest and northwest corners. The bartizan to the southwest is surmounted with a small crowstepped caphouse, which may date to the late 16th or early 17th century. The south elevation has the former principal late 15th century entrance, blocked in the late 18th century. The mansion house is built of sandstone ashlar and cherry-caulked mortar. The principal (south) elevation is 3 storeys and 5 bays, with a central door flanked by 2 pilasters on either side, with a corniced architrave above. There is a band course to the left and right. To the rear, the central bay window to the first floor is Diocletian and there is a Venetian style window directly above on the second floor. The windows are predominantly 6 over 6 timber sash and case windows, elongated to the first floor, with squared 3 over 6 at the second floor. The roof is slated and piended with two wide longitudinal corniced chimney stacks with clay cans. The attached ancillary buildings , dating predominantly to the late 18th century with later alterations (1990s) are attached to the tower and house and form a roughly rectangular plan courtyard.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.