When first published, this 1887 volume was largely a reprint of
Castellated Architecture of Aberdeenshire (1849), focussing on the forty-five Castles featured as the centres of influence and action in a district rich in historic associations. The wars of Robert Bruce, of Queen Mary, and of the Covenanters, had several of their most momentous conflicts within this region; it was here that the Jacobite rising of 1715 had its inception and first developments; and Aberdeenshire had its share in the final struggle on behalf of the Stuarts in 1745. The battles of Inverurie and Barra, of Culblean and Harlaw, of Corrichie, Craibstane, and Tullyangus, of Aberdeen and Alford, are landmarks of Scottish and local history. To these and many other events of a stirring epoch, the venerable strongholds whose configuration or remains are depicted in this volume, are closely linked.