06-05-2025
Did Robert the Bruce destroy this Scottish city's castle?
They arrive at Castlegate, which is one of the landmark areas of the city, and ask the obvious question: where is the castle?
It's a question I asked when I first visited the city while studying nearby as a teenager some 50 years ago, and today after much research I am going to try to answer that question.
That there was a castle in Aberdeen is beyond doubt. Just as with all our Scottish cities, when Aberdeen expanded it did so on the basis of religious foundations, royal patronage, gaining burgh status or similar, and having a fortification.
Castlegate
That Old Aberdeen had all these attributes is shown by its burgesses being mentioned in documents at the start of the reign of King David I in 1124. By that time the burgh was already trading with the Continent, exporting mainly wool, hides, meal and dried salted fish.
As we saw last week, Aberdeen had religious establishments while the Picts still ruled north-east Scotland in the final quarter of the first millennium, and it is known that in 1136 the Bishop of Aberdeen was granted 'tithes' – 10ths of the value – of goods going through the port of Old Aberdeen, suggesting that trade was well established by that time.
We also saw last week how Bishop Edward of Aberdeen received a Bull from Pope Adrian IV in 1157, and that either caused or confirmed the establishment of the parish Church of St Nicholas, the patron saint of commerce. Its successor is still considered as being the 'mother kirk' of the city.
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Aberdeen is also one of the few cities with two patron saints.
St Machar was patron of Old Aberdeen, and St Nicholas was acclaimed patron of New Aberdeen, which developed in the 12th and 13th centuries.
That Papal Bull also saw Bishop Edward create a team of canons to run his diocese, leading to the building of a 'chanonry' of residences with the area still known by that name.
As the history of various towns and cities across Scotland shows, the royals of that period in the early second millennium travelled around from fortification to fortification and installed garrisons to help them control the country. Aberdeen certainly had some kind of castle by the 1150s, because it was in a royal residence there that King Malcolm IV – 'the Maiden' – met with the powerful Viking lord from Orkney, Sweyn Asleifsson or Sveinn Ásleifarson, who Malcolm backed in his various familial disputes over who was really in charge of the Norse areas of Scotland.
Some accounts, particularly in the Icelandic-penned Orkneying Saga suggest that Norsemen attacked 'Apardion', as they named it, in 1153, but I think that was just propaganda and the more likely explanation is that King Malcolm and the Vikings agreed some sort of peace treaty.
As I wrote last week, Malcolm's successor, William the Lion, gave his designated burgh a charter in 1179 which conferred trading rights and privileges on Aberdeen, and these undoubtedly fuelled the development of the port which began operations from the mouth of the River Dee south of Old Aberdeen.
This New Aberdeen also had an early Tolbooth – a mixture of town house and prison – by 1191, and a few years later King William paid for the establishment of a monastery of Trinity friars. It was at this time that people from the south of Scotland and further afield, including from the Continent, began to populate Aberdeen and its surrounding areas, bringing with them a distinctive dialect that survives in Doric.
Aberdeen Castle was well positioned to protect both Old Aberdeen and the rapidly developing New Aberdeen, and it was a vital asset for the area, first mentioned in documents in 1264 when a certain Richard Cementarius – 'Richard the Mason' – was paid for his stonework repairs on the castle.
He was the chief architect and master mason to King Alexander III, and was obviously well respected in the burgh as he became the first provost of Aberdeen in 1272.
Royal patronage continued to benefit Aberdeen. As William Watt recorded: 'By two charters of Alexander III – the one granted at Kintore in 1273 and the other at Kincardine in 1277– the burgesses of Aberdeen obtained the right to hold a yearly fair of two weeks from the day of the Holy Trinity, and were declared, along with their servants, to be free from poinding of goods save for their own debts and obligations.'
These charters made Aberdeen a powerful commercial centre – however, its increasing prominence in the affairs of Scotland caused Aberdeen to be thrust into the Wars of Independence, with disastrous results for its castle.
Much of the 13th century in Scotland was spent by the nobility fighting among themselves, and the Comyn family emerged as the most powerful in the north-east. Yet they were opposed by other lords and also the burgesses of Aberdeen.
When the uncrowned queen Margaret, the Fair Maid of Norway, died in 1290, there was no obvious heir and that led to the nobles asking Edward I of England – aka 'Longshanks' – to govern the process of choosing the new king.
With the support of the Comyns, John Balliol was selected, but to Edward's chagrin, in 1295 he chose to sign the Auld Alliance with France against England. Aberdeen was one of the five burghs whose seal was attached to the original vellum document which can today be seen in the National Archives of France in Paris.
Longshanks brought a huge army north the following year and massacred the people of Berwick before routing the Scottish army at Dunbar and marching up the east coast to Aberdeen, which one
English chronicle of the time described as a 'good town' with
'a fair-sized castle'.
Longshanks stayed in it for five days, compelling the burgesses and local lords to swear allegiance to him. He left a garrison which survived a short siege by William Wallace and his allies during
their uprising.
The garrison held out and was visited by Edward I again in 1303, but after Robert the Bruce murdered John 'The Red' Comyn and took the throne in 1306, he spent several years subduing his enemies across Scotland – including the Comyns.
In 1308, King Robert and his increasingly powerful army won the Battle of Inverurie, also known as the Battle of Barra, defeating the Comyns utterly. The king then carried out what became known as the Harrying (or Herschip) of Buchan, laying waste to Comyn lands and fortresses before turning his attention to Aberdeen Castle.
No fans of the Comyns, the burgesses and people of Aberdeen rose up against the English garrison. One account says they slaughtered every soldier, while another states they were allowed to escape. Either way, Aberdeen Castle was taken and legend has it that the password used during that military operation was 'bon accord', French for 'good agreement', which became the motto of Aberdeen.
It is my theory that in common with all the castles that were recaptured from the English occupiers, King Robert ordered the complete destruction of Aberdeen Castle, a task which the local populace carried out in totality, such had been their hatred of its occupiers until 1308.
The wooden parts were probably burned completely and not a wall or single stone was left, with some of the stonework no doubt taken away for use in other buildings.
Aberdeen Castle completely disappeared from history and despite archaeological investigations, no trace of it has ever been found. It will remain a source of mystery.
After Bannockburn in 1314, King Robert I rewarded his friends and allies with grants of land, and he did not forget the support of the people of Aberdeen.
The city council's website records: 'On 10th December 1319, the Stocket Charter, a document written in Latin and signed by King Robert the Bruce, proclaimed at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, and addressed
to the 'burgesses and community
of our burgh of Aberdeen,' is one
of the pivotal documents in
the city's history.
'As a reward for its loyalty, the burgh received several grants from Robert the Bruce, including custody of the forest of Stocket, culminating in this charter which gave all revenues from the burgh courts, market tolls, fishing to the burgesses in perpetuity, in return for an annual payment of £213 6s 8d.
'THE charter reserved sporting and timber rights for the crown, but otherwise the city obtained absolute possession. It was an extremely valuable gift, allowing the burgh to generate significant income and to lay the basis for the 'Common Good Fund' which survives to this day. It also enabled Aberdeen to become a significant economic and political power in late-medieval and early-modern Scotland.'
This grant was the basis of the Freedom Lands which formed the boundaries of Aberdeen. The Bruce also confirmed the construction of the Brig o'Balgownie which crossed the Don near Old Aberdeen.
The king had another strong connection to Aberdeen, his daughter Matilda marrying local man Thomas Isaac. Matilda later died in Aberdeen on July 20, 1353.
The city repaid the Bruce for his support in a memorable way, for it was in Old Aberdeen around 1375 that John Barbour, archdeacon of
St Machar's, wrote the epic poem
The Brus, which remains the chief source of information about the king.
The next major figure in Aberdonian history was also a cleric, Bishop William Elphinstone. Born in Glasgow around 1431, he was educated at Glasgow University and later in France. Ordained a priest, he rose to become Bishop of Ross and then of Aberdeen.
His legal skills also saw him appointed Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, and though he retired from that post soon afterwards, he carried out major diplomatic missions for King James IV, who supported Elphinstone in his great ambition to establish a university in Old Aberdeen.
He obtained a Bull from Pope Alexander VI in 1495 and a royal charter from James IV, as shown by the name he chose for his new university – King's College – at the centre of the Burgh of Barony of Old Aberdeen which Elphinstone also created. He was certainly ambitious, as King's had five faculties from the start and was soon the leading university in the land.
With Old Aberdeen having its university, it followed that New Aberdeen wanted one too – the two burghs were rivals for centuries – and in 1593, George Keith, the 5th Earl Marischal of Scotland, founded what became Marischal College. For a time, Aberdeen had two universities, the same number as England, but it was not until 1860 that the two colleges united as Aberdeen University.
The Reformation was not entirely grasped by Aberdeen, Old and New, in 1560 but in time the Church of Scotland's followers drove out Catholic worship from the city. With the rest of the north-east, the reformed Christians still favoured bishops and in time the Scottish Episcopal Church established a diocese in Aberdeen, now Aberdeen and Orkney.
During the wars of the Three Kingdoms, Aberdeen saw the Marquis of Montrose and his royalist troops win the Battle of Justice Mills, also known as the Battle of Aberdeen, in 1644 after which the royalists sacked and pillaged the city.
For Jacobites, there is a sad footnote to this ancient history of Aberdeen. For six weeks before the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the Duke of Cumberland stayed in Aberdeen and drilled the government troops in the new tactics they used to defeat the Jacobites in the battle which finished the Rising.
I hope I have shown that Aberdeen's ancient history laid the foundations of the great city
it became.
