[1] The earliest part of the castle was a modest hall house, on a site overlooking the Dour Burn.

The terraces, dating from the mid-16th century, form one of the oldest gardens in Scotland,[2] and offer extensive views across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh.

A fire in the late 17th century was followed by some repairs, but in 1725 the family purchased nearby Aberdour House, and the medieval castle was allowed to fall into decay.

[4] There is no record of what happened to the de Mortimers, but in the early 14th century, King Robert the Bruce granted Aberdour to his kinsman, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray (d. 1332).

[6] The newly created earl expanded the existing hall house, heightening and rebuilding the structure to suit his elevated status.

[7] The second earl carried out extensions to Aberdour Castle around 1500, building a new stair tower and south block.

[8] Morton reached Brechin, in Angus, where he signed a deed resigning his lands to his kinsman Robert Douglas of Lochleven.

After James V's death in late 1542, George Douglas of Pittendreich and the Earl of Arran assisted Morton in reclaiming his lands, including Aberdour.

[12] He was later implicated in the 1567 murder of Queen Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, and executed in 1581 on the orders of the young King.

William's son predeceased his father, but his widow, Jean Lyon, continued to live at Aberdour with her third husband, Lord Spynie.

[14] Colonel William Stewart and Sir James Sandilands accused Spynie of entertaining the rebel Earl of Bothwell at Aberdour in 1592 but he denied this.

However, he was compelled to spend much of his fortune in the royal interest, leading him into financial difficulty, and forcing him to sell Dalkeith to the Earl of Buccleuch in 1642.

Smith surveyed the damage and drew up proposals for repairing and extending the castle with another wing north of the east range.

[16] In 1924 the castle and gardens were placed in state care, and continue to be managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a visitor attraction.

In the 16th century the central range was built to the south of the tower house, and new inner and outer courtyard walls were constructed.

[3] The east part of the inner courtyard wall is reduced to foundations, but the base of a round tower and a porter's lodge survive.

The castle was originally approached from the north, with the entrance moved to the west, along with the 17th-century gate, when the Aberdour railway line was constructed in 1890.

The cubical blocks of masonry, the flat buttress at the northeast, and the splaying, or widening, of the base of the walls, are all indicative of this date.

[3] The tower suffered major collapses in 1844 and 1919, and today just the basement survives, with only a small section of the southeast wall standing to its full height.

Originally topped by a conical roof, this stair gave access to the upper floors in the tower, and to the central range.

This block, forming the present three-storey central range, includes a vaulted kitchen and cellar in the basement, with suites of rooms above.

The roof is of 18th-century date, and is lower than the original, resulting in the loss of the triangular pediments which once topped each of the side windows.

[25] The high retaining walls were rebuilt in 1981,[3] and the terraces were laid with grass, since the excavations had not revealed any evidence of historic planting schemes.

The east door led to St. Fillan's Church, and is carved with the date 1632, together with a monogram of the initials of the Earl and Countess.

The house is Category A listed,[29] and formerly had its own extensive gardens, which included the surviving 12-metre (39 ft) high obelisk of 1744–45, built by the 13th Earl to be visible from his estate at Dalmahoy, across the Firth of Forth.