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Corgarff Castle stands at the head of Strathdon in Aberdeenshire and 20 miles west of Glenmore near Aviemore. It guards the quickest route between Deeside and Speyside.

The castle was built around 1550 by John Forbes of Towie. The Forbes family lost the castle in tragic circumstances when Adam Gordon of Auchindoun attempted to capture the castle while the men were away. Margaret Forbes refused to give up the castle so Auchindoun burned it down, killing over 20 women, children and servants. The castle was then in the hands of local bandits until it was acquired by the Earl of Mar and used as a place to assemble and equip his army during the 1715 Jacobite Rising.

After the failed 1715 Rising the Government burned Corgarff Castle down again before returning it to the Forbes family who repaired it.

In 1746 the Jacobites used the castle as an arms and ammunition store after their retreat from Derby. The castle, along with the arms and ammunition, was captured by Government forces just before the Battle of Culloden. It was converted into Government Barracks in 1748.

This illustration can be found in vol 2 of 'Historical Papers Relating to the Jacobite Period 1699-1750', edited by Colonel James Allardyce LL.D and printed in Aberdeen for the New Spalding Club. The Spalding Club was an antiquarian society founded and named after John Spalding, a lawyer and Commissary Clerk of Aberdeen during the reign of Charles I

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