Club campsites in Scotland
Home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world and a great place to go touring.
Book campsites in ScotlandKing of the castles
From the Cairngorms to the coast, Aberdeenshire is home to more castles per acre than anywhere else in the UK. Anna Haines is your guide
Castle Fraser – one of the largest tower houses in Scotland. Image ©National Trust for Scotland
A dream destination for heritage enthusiasts and romantic explorers alike, Aberdeenshire is home to more castles per acre than anywhere else in the UK. The region’s strategic importance throughout its turbulent past has given rise to a plethora of spectacular, story-inspiring fortresses. Tucked away amid ancient pine forests, overlooking rich, rolling farmland, or perched perilously atop towering cliffs, more than 260 castles can be reached readily from the Club’s Aberdeenshire sites.
Deeside
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The tranquil Silverbank Club Campsite, on the River Dee at Banchory, is a centrally located base for exploring the historic houses of Deeside, a region famous for the royal residency at Balmoral. However, a number of other historic gems can be found just a stone’s throw from this picturesque site.
Less than three miles from Silverbank, fairytale Crathes Castle can be reached on bike or foot along the Deeside Way cycle path. Guided tours run throughout the day within the classic 16th-century Scottish tower house, exploring the intricate maze of turrets, towers and spiral staircases leading to rooms famous for their Jacobean painted ceilings and resident ghost, the Green Lady. Outside, younger guests will be occupied for hours by the adventure fort, while the walled gardens, with their yew hedges and colourful herbaceous borders, are a tranquil haven to amble around, particularly in autumn. The wider estate, formally part of the Royal Forest of Drum, is home to roe deer, red squirrels and woodpeckers, as well as a herd of highland cattle, and can be explored via walking trails of varying length.
A few miles east of Crathes is Drum Castle, a unique mix of late-13th-century tower and Jacobean mansion house, with later Victorian additions. Daily tours showcase the castle’s collections of furniture and paintings and the impressive family library, which houses 4,000 books. Mary’s Larder, the castle’s modern-day tearoom, is located in the former kitchens and serves a variety of homemade produce.
The grounds are home to a 16th-century chapel, and walled gardens housing an exceptional collection of rare roses from around the globe. For young explorers, the new natural play area is open throughout the summer, and a variety of woodland trails traverse the Old Wood of Drum, a former royal hunting forest containing ancient oaks dating from the 1700s.
West of Silverbank, the Deeside route delves deep into the mountains, passing by Queen Victoria’s “dear paradise in the Highlands”, Balmoral (open to visitors during summer), as well as the ancient ruins of Knock Castle at Glen Muick, and Braemar Castle, seat of Clan Farquharson, in the heart of The Cairngorms National Park.
Central/Northern Aberdeenshire
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North of the Dee, Aberdeenshire’s patchwork mosaic of forest and rolling farmland provides a majestic setting for Castle Fraser, one of the largest tower houses in Scotland. Dating back to 1450, this magnificent building, with its evocative Great Hall, fine family treasures and art collection, can be explored on a self-guided tour, while children’s trails are also available.
As the castle has morphed over the centuries from a defensive tower house to a grand home, structural changes and additions have generated a number of hidden trapdoors and secret staircases. Visitors can explore these hidden spaces in more detail during special ‘Behind the Scenes’ tours starting in January. Christmas is also showcased through the ages with different rooms in the castle decorated throughout December.
Fourteen miles to the west, on a wooded hillside, Craigievar Castle’s pink-tinted facade and riot of towers, turrets and gargoyles appear to have been plucked from a fairytale. Reputed to have inspired the castle in Walt Disney’s Cinderella, Craigievar began as a much simpler tower house in the late 1500s, before the affluent Forbes family took ownership in 1610 and developed it into its present form.
With no electricity above the first floor, visitors on a castle tour can admire the numerous arms, historic artefacts and paintings by natural daylight. The surrounding parkland and forests of the estate are home to some incredible wildlife, including pine martens and Scottish wildcats. House martins can be observed during the day, flitting among the castle turrets as you enjoy a tearoom delicacy on the lawn.
About 30 mile to the north one reaches the imposing fortress of Fyvie Castle, which has a history stretching back some 800 years. Spread across five towers and filled with antiquities, armour, tapestries and portraits, it was lavishly furnished in the late 19th century by Alexander Forbes-Leith, who made his fortune in the American steel industry. The castle’s wheel staircase is one of its most impressive features, so wide it is said horses were once raced up them!
Like so many British castles, Fyvie has associations with the supernatural. Its ghostly Green Lady is thought to be Dame Lilias Drummond, who died of a broken heart when her husband, Sir Alexander Seton, locked her high in a tower to pursue his affair. After a restless wedding night Seton and his new bride awoke to discover Lilias’s name carved in stone on their windowsill, a carving that can still be seen on a guided tour to this day.
Within the castle grounds, the grandeur continues, with a glass-roofed racquets court, walled gardens and picturesque wood-lined loch abundant in wildfowl.
Aberdeenshire coast
Dunotter Castle
Aberdeenshire’s coastline provides a backdrop to some spectacular ruins, including the clifftop remains of Slains Castle at Cruden Bay, once visited by Bram Stoker (and said by some to be the inspiration for Dracula’s castle). It’s an impressive place, but visitors should take extra care due to its precarious position and keep to surrounding paths. Meanwhile, poised 160ft above the North Sea south of the Club’s Stonehaven Queen Elizabeth Park campsite stands Dunnottar Castle, a once-impregnable fortress constructed by the first Earl Marischal of Scotland in the late 14th century. Hosting legendary visitors in its time, including William Wallace, Mary, Queen of Scots and Oliver Cromwell, the well-preserved remains of the keep and castle are open to visitors year-round.
Dunnottar Castle can be reached easily by foot along the coast from the lively seaside town of Stonehaven, rewarding visitors with chance sightings of seals, dolphins and puffins along the way. The Stoney Express land train also takes visitors directly to Dunnottar via the Club campsite during the summer.
Ghostly getaways
Castles are often connected with the supernatural – here’s a trio of haunted habitats near Club campsites…
• Chillingham Castle, Northumberland
From disembodied voices in the chapel to the White Pantry Ghost, Chillingham is promoted as “Britain’s most haunted historic castle”. Ghost tours and hunts run throughout the year.
Stay: River Breamish Club Campsite
Contact: chillingham-castle.com
• Berry Pomeroy Castle, Devon
Two apparitions said to haunt the ruins of this medieval fortress are the White Lady – ghost of Margaret Pomeroy, who roams the dungeons of St Margaret’s Tower– and the Blue Lady, said to lure people to certain parts of the castle.
Stay: Steamer Quay Club Campsite
Contact: english-heritage.org.uk
• Muncaster Castle, Cumbria
Resident spirits include Tom Fool, known to play tricks on people, the White Lady, Maggie the Crying Child and a mysterious woman dressed in black. Said to be one of the most haunted buildings in the UK, the castle holds overnight ‘Ghost Sit’ experiences.
Stay: Coniston Park Coppice Club Campsite
Contact: muncaster.co.uk
