Corse Castle
By B. R. Forbes, Clan Historian & Storyteller
Rising on a wooded ridge above the Corse Burn, Corse Castle stands like a thoughtful sentinel. Strong-shouldered, disciplined, and quietly refined, it is neither wholly medieval nor fully modern. Instead, Corse is the scholar-reformer of Forbes architecture: principled, restrained, and purposeful—a stronghold that thinks as much as it defends. Today the castle survives as a gaunt, roofless shell. Yet it was once the heart of a powerful and influential Forbes cadet family.
Long before the Forbeses acquired Corse, the barony passed repeatedly from one great Scottish family to another. Its history followed neither a straight line nor the tidy pattern of father-to-son inheritance. Instead, ownership shifted through disputed successions, divided inheritances, royal settlements, and political compromise. A succession dispute ended in royal arbitration. An heiress's lands were divided among her daughters. An aging countess was persuaded to resign her estates to the king's own son. This succession of owners reveals how many hands had shaped Corse before it finally became a Forbes possession.
The lands of Corse lay within the ancient mormaerdom of Mar, the great native Gaelic province that became a feudal earldom in the Norman fashion by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. When Mar's own succession fell into dispute in the early 1200s, King Alexander II settled it around 1228 by carving out a substantial portion of the earldom as compensation for the losing claimant, Thomas Durward — the separate Barony of O'Neill, held directly of the Crown. The barony passed through two more generations of Durwards, most notably the powerful Sir Alan Durward, before reverting to the Crown on his death around 1270. It was then granted to the Earls of Fife, already tied to the Durwards by an earlier marriage, and descended through that family — Duncan III, assassinated in 1288; his son Duncan IV; and finally his granddaughter, Isabella, Countess of Fife — into the fourteenth century.
Having married four times without producing a surviving heir, Isabella was persuaded in 1371 to resign her earldom, together with the Barony of O'Neill, to Robert Stewart, a younger son of Robert II. The elder brother John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, was physically disabled and so the Scottish Parliament appointed the younger brother Robert as Guardian of Scotland. He retained that role when the king died in 1390 and his eldest son, born John, took the throne with the regnal name of Robert III. In 1398, Robert Stewart was created Duke of Albany and he continued to govern in the name of his brother.
Robert III died in 1406, leaving only surviving son James, then about eleven or twelve. In that same year, his son James was captured by the English and held for eighteen years. Appointed as Governor of Scotland, Albany retained his grip on the government. When he died in 1420, his son Murdoch followed in his path. James finally returned to Scotland in 1424.
In 1425, Murdoch, two of his sons, and his father-in-law were arrested, tried for treason, and beheaded before Stirling Castle. Their titles were forfeited, and with them the family's vast holdings reverted to the Crown—including Corse within the barony of O'Neill. The land sat in Crown hands for half a century before James III found a use for it—encouraging the rise of the Forbes of Corse.
After he gained the throne in 1460, James III appointed as his armor bearer, Patrick Forbes of Coul, a younger son of James, 2nd Lord Forbes. The role of armor-bearer, or scutifer, was not merely ceremonial, but a position of trust granted through family ties. Sir Alexander, first Lord Forbes, had married Elizabeth, the only daughter of George Douglas, Earl of Angus, and granddaughter of Robert III by his daughter Princess Mary. Therefore, both James III and Patrick were descended from Robert III.
For Patrick’s service, James granted a royal charter for the lands of O’Neil and Corse in 1476. The Forbeses were already rising in national prominence, and the crown—keen to cultivate loyal northern families—recognized the value of anchoring a Forbes presence in the region. This was further established in 1511 when King James IV granted a charter to Patrick’s son David Forbes of the lands of O’Neill, Corse, Kincragy, and Muretoun, thereby erecting the barony of O’Neill.
The family lived in a modest laird’s house near the Corse Burn. However, clan rivalry regularly erupted into violence. During the 1570s, Gordons raided and burned the house, which was the fate of many Forbes properties. This prompted David’s grandson, Sir William Forbes, 4th Laird of Corse (c.1543—1614), to undertake a bold rebuilding project.
In 1581, Sir William began constructing a new residence: a combination of a Z-plan and L-plan tower house. The design—two projecting towers at opposite corners of a rectangular block—allowed overlapping fields of fire and created a structure that was both imposing and practical. The fortress included gun loops and defensive features suited to the turbulent late sixteenth century. In 1584, Sir William said of his new castle: “Please God I will build me such a house as thieves will need to knock at ere they enter.”
Corse Castle was built at the meeting point of Renaissance confidence and Reformation caution, blending vigilance with a measured elegance. Its sculptural massing and corbelled turrets hint at learning and aspiration, yet its sober lines and ordered interior reveal a house shaped by duty, governance, and the uncertainties of a changing kingdom.
Sir William fathered several sons, may of whom would leave a mark on the wider world. Patrick Forbes (1564—1635), the eldest, became Bishop of Aberdeen, a towering figure of the early seventeenth-century Kirk whose reforms shaped Scottish religious life for generations. William Forbes (1566—1627) purchased the half-finished Craigievar Castle in 1610 and completed it in 1626. He created the iconic pink tower that remains one of Scotland’s architectural jewels.
The third son, John Forbes (c.1565—1634), became one of the most resolute Presbyterian clerics of his age. Unlike his elder brother Patrick, John’s unwavering commitment to Presbyterian governance placed him in direct conflict with the crown. Arthur Forbes, a younger son, pursued a military career that carried him to Ireland, where he founded the line that would become the Earls of Granard. Thus, from the walls of Corse Castle emerged three branches of the Forbes family whose influence stretched from the Scottish Reformation to the plantations of Ulster and the courts of Europe.
When Sir William died in 1614, his eldest son Patrick became the 5th Laird of Corse. Bishop Forbes refined the interior to accommodate his library, improved guest chambers, and spaces for hospitality and ecclesiastical visitors. These modifications gave Corse a more cultured atmosphere than many contemporary strongholds. Corse Castle became a center of intellectual and religious life. Ministers, scholars, and noblemen visited the castle, and the Forbeses of Corse became known as a family of learning and lineage.
His son, John, 6th Laird of Corse, continued that devotion to scholarship. Born in 1593, he was educated by his uncle John in Holland and rose to become Professor of Divinity at King's College in Aberdeen. His son George was the 7th Laird of Corse.
He sold part of the estate in 1656 to Francis Duguid, 7th Laird of Auchinhove (1615—1675), whose mother was Mary, daughter of Robert Forbes of Barnes, son of William Forbes, 2nd Laird of Monymusk and heir to the lands of Barnes, a cadet of Towie of the Brux branch. He sold the remainder in 1670 to his second cousin, “Red” Sir John Forbes, third Laird of Craigievar, second baronet (1636—1703). With that acquisition, the houses of Corse and Craigievar combined.
Sir John Forbes of Corse and Craigievar, 7th Baronet (1785—1846) married Charlotte Elizabeth, daughter of James, 17th Lord Forbes. When he died, he left the Corse estate to his youngest son James Ochoncar Forbes (1837—1900), the brother of Sir William Forbes, 8th Baronet of Craigievar, (1836—1905), later 17th Lord Sempill.
James Ochoncar Forbes made the sensible decision not to reside in Corse Castle and instead established a new family home in 1863. He hired Aberdeen architect Alexander Ellis who designed the new house as an elegant Italianate villa. This style embodied the Enlightenment taste for comfort and display with broad, symmetrical façades; tall chimneys and generous windows; a refined interior; and placement beside a man-made loch, adding scenic charm to the estate.
The new house symbolized the Forbeses’ adaptation to a changing world. From the outset, Corse House was designed not only as a residence, but as a complete country estate. It originally featured a large conservatory or orangery-style garden room for the cultivation of exotic plants alongside well developed grounds. The features spoke both to the lifestyle and the standing of the period.
The inheritance of the Corse estate followed a remarkably straightforward course, passing in an unbroken father-to-son line—a far simpler story than the Craigievar baronetcy. James Ochoncar Forbes was succeeded by his son, Lieutenant Colonel James Ochoncar Forbes. He, in turn, was succeeded by his elder son, Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Walter Forbes (1914–1979), and then by Patrick's only son, Major Sir Andrew Iain Ochoncar Forbes (1945–2023).
The Craigievar baronetcy followed a more circuitous path. It passed in 1965 to Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet, then in 1991 to Sir John Alexander Cumnock Forbes, 12th Baronet, before returning in 2000 to Major Sir Andrew. For the first time since 1846, the historic baronetcy and the Corse estate were reunited in the same hands. Upon Sir Andrew's death in 2023, both passed to his son, Sir James Patrick Ochoncar Forbes, 14th Baronet.
The twentieth century brought profound changes to the Scottish landed class. Two world wars, agricultural depression, rising taxation, and the decline of domestic service all eroded the economic foundations of estates such as Corse. However, maintaining a mansion house and a historic estate became increasingly difficult. By the mid-1900s, Corse Castle was a roofless ruin, preserved only as a romantic relic of the family’s past. Corse House is now in great need of repairs and up for sale.
Corse Castle reflects generations who built, rebuilt, defended, refined, and ultimately relinquished it. Today it stands as a roofless ruin, yet its character remains unmistakable. Strong-shouldered, disciplined, and quietly refined, Corse reminds us that true strength is measured not only by walls, but by conviction. Its towers still rise above the Corse Burn, preserving the legacy of a family that united faith, learning, and steadfast purpose. Even in ruin, Corse endures as a monument to principle—proof that the strongest foundations are not always built of stone.
Excerpted from Forbes: A Story of Stone by B. R. Forbes, copyright 2026.
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