Description

Invermark Castle is an implausibly tall tower house dating back to the 1300s and built to guard the southern end of the strategic pass leading from Deeside.

The exterior of the castle is remarkably impressive. In part this is down to the setting in mountainous country where Glen Lee and Glen Mark meet to become Glen Esk. But it is also because you can get an impression, often lost in castles altered in later centuries, of just how daunting a building like this would have been to lightly armed attackers.

It is an impressive and interesting structure, and well worth the short detour from the busy path north to Mount Keen. Oddly for such a large castle, the growth of trees around the Water of Mark means it is remarkably invisible from the south east until you are very close to it.

The castle was built around 1526 by the Lindsay family, making use of an existing 14th century keep. It sheltered David Lindsay after he had killed Lord Spynie in Edinburgh (1607), following a long-standing quarrel; and also James Carnegie, Lord Balnamoon, who was being sought by government troops after the Battle of Culloden (1746).