If you were to draw a pink fairy tale castle, Craigievar Castle in the Scottish Highlands might be the one you would base it on. Proportionally it is near perfect. Turreted and surrounded by verdant Aberdeenshire countryside, it is framed with an avenue of beech trees and a stupendous, ancient monkey puzzle. Whilst the castle is moderately powerful-looking, it is most undeniably pretty. Which is perhaps why when Walt Disney saw a picture of it, he is said to have been inspired by it for his Cinderella castle.

Fairy tale castle

There is something about this style of Scottish tower house architecture that is so appealing with its soaring baronial turrets and almost icing sugar-like exterior. Fairy tale stories from children’s story books often look like Craigievar and add to that a possible 17th century Romeo and Juliet story between two opposing clans (the Forbes and the Gordons), you have a building that carries more than enough intrigue to capture the imagination.

A very condensed history of Craigievar Castle

Building began around 1576 and The National Trust For Scotland say “the exterior remains virtually unchanged (except for its colour) since William Forbes completed it in c1626.” The Forbes family went on to own the castle for the next 300 years.

In 1963, the castle passed ownership from 8 generations of the Forbes family to The National Trust For Scotland. Craigievar Castle retains much of the Forbes family original 17th and 19th century furniture and older portraits, along with their private collection in the castle’s long gallery of 20th century studio pottery with pieces by Lucy Rie and Eric Ravilious.

Step inside The Pink Castle

I have to come clean at this point that due to the castle rules of no interior photography, I have only been able to take pictures of the exterior. But all is not lost dear readers! The National Trust For Scotland press office has very kindly supplied me with some interior images.

Recently renovated Craigievar Castle

In May 2024 the National Trust For Scotland completed an 18-month conservation programme to restore and protect the famous pink exterior of Craigievar Castle. After some harling repairs to the exterior, 13,000 litres of a special recipe pink limewash were painted on to the seven-storey high castle.

Until 1824 when Sir John Forbes (1785-1846) instructed Aberdeen architect John Smith to replace the roof and make repairs, the castle harling had been painted in cream. One of John Smith’s suggestions was that he thought the harling should “match the colour of the granite mouldings” so pigments were added to create a pale pink exterior.

Decoration in a Scottish tower house

Semi-fortress-like in origin, a Scottish Tower house (mainly built between 14th and 17th centuries) are characterised by baronial style turrets, impenetrable walls and small look-out windows. Over the centuries the thick stone-walled interiors of Scottish tower houses softened with the aristocratic fashions of the times from painted to Jacobean plaster ceilings, to the addition of long galleries, panelled walls and heavily carved furniture.

Craigievar’s square footage is not as great as some of its neighbouring tower house castles but maybe that’s what helps to make it seem so homely. Its remote hillside location allows for wonderful bird’s eye views of Aberdeenshire and Royal Deeside.

For me, the interiors at Craigievar gave us a wonderful treat of the history of aristocratic Scottish interiors. There were servants’ pine box beds from the 1820s (one converted in the 20th century to a bath) 18th-century angel bed canopies, heavy wool tartan carpets and curtains.

Then there is the not so insignificant matter of centuries Forbes family portraiture, Persian carpets and bobbin (yes!) furniture. But the main wow, comes from the 17th century moulded plasterwork (said to have been undertaken by a skilled English artisan) above the fireplace in the main hall and on the bedroom ceilings.

Long gallery and spiral staircase at Craigievar Castle

Craigievar’s ‘long room’ or long gallery originally had like other rooms in the castle, an ornate 17th century plaster ceiling. Long galleries were rooms with lots of light at the top of a house or castle meant for displaying art, for parties and sport or for other forms of exercise when the weather was inclement.

There is only one spiral staircase to the the top of Craigievar castle, which means a lot of negotiation must have taken place between those wishing to come up or down. Our National Trust For Scotland guide told us that when a ceilidh or party was being held in the long gallery that the maids had to carry up the exceptionally wide 17th century dresses to the gallery for their mistresses to change into. The dresses were too wide to get up the corkscrew spiral staircase which was impossibly narrow!

By the 19th century, after a period of delipaidation, the long gallery ceiling had fallen in and was replaced with a plain, vaulted ceiling. It then became a space for servants’ bedrooms and a place for drying laundry.

The National Trust For Scotland says that “Lady Sempill was told by ‘an ancient retainer’ that the servants like sitting up here, not only because it was warmed by the stove but because they were out of earshot of their employers’ demands.”

Stay at The Pink Castle

We didn’t stay in the cottage but on the day we visited the castle in May 2025, South Mains Cottage looked so attractive with its cottage and wildflower front garden. It was originally one of the estate workers’ cottages and is located a few hundred metres from Craigievar castle. You can book it through The National Trust For Scotland.

Notes for visitors to Craigievar Castle

To my mind, Craigievar is a Scottish tower house beauty, albeit a very northern one. Wherever you are in the world it requires quite a journey to visit, which maybe makes the arrival all the sweeter.

Due to its size, there are a limited number of daily tours so I would advise aiming to get there for opening time, in case you don’t manage to get on the first tour, which takes around 10 people maximum. Also check opening times, bearing in mind the castle has no electricity relying on natural light. If you have an English National Trust membership card, you can use it in National Trust For Scotland properties too.

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Thank you

Thank you so much for reading this, the third and final blog tour of Scottish highland castles this summer. I am sad to leave the Highlands behind, but think you have probably seen enough Scottish castles for now?!

If you would like to receive regular (mostly monthly) email alerts for future blog posts, then please subscribe below. The next post looks at the ingredients for a sustainable interior design style, which is a perennial favourite here at blog HQ.

With very many thanks, Charis x