Birse Castle

Originally a square tower house, it was rebuilt in the first decade of the 20th century into an L-plan structure.

Sir William Gordon of Cluny feued the forest from the bishop in 1585 and built the tower house as a hunting lodge or summer retreat.

Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie acquired the house in 1636 and it passed to Charles Gordon, 1st Earl of Aboyne, in 1666.

Very sympathetic to Mitchell's work, Kelly's angle turrets were slightly larger to add windows at the third-storey level and he added a one-storey northern extension and entrance.

Above the main ground-floor entrance in the tower is a heraldic panel bearing a thistle, rose and crown.