A must-see: Tolquhon's entrance was made not for war but for pride. Its twin round-towered gatehouse is studded with carved roundels, heraldic panels, sculpted portrait heads and mouldings of rare quality and invention. Two human figures flank the passage: they are most likely the laird William Forbes and his wife Elizabeth. An inscription records the building work itself: "AL THIS WARKE EXCEP THE AULD TOWR WAS BEGUN BE WILLIAM FORBES 15 APRIL 1584 AND ENDIT BE HIM 20 OCTOBER 1589." The designer, mason-architect Thomas Leiper, conceived a work of display rather than defence — the Renaissance of the north-east lairds, where stone becomes a shop window.
Did you know?
The Tolquhon inscription dates the start (15 April 1584) and finish (20 October 1589) of the work to the very day: an accountant's precision, rare on a monument, that makes this portal a document as much as a work of art.
Info
- Exterior decoration, on a consolidated ruin.
- The figures flanking the door are among Scotland's rare secular "donor" statues.
- The sculpture / decorative dimension of Tolquhon Castle (see the linked monument entry).