[4] THE ORIGINAL CASTLE is thought to have been a small circular fort, belonging to the Comyns, which was sited on a knoll to the north of the present building. The Grants at some undetermined date attacked the fort, when few Comyns were in the locality, and won the day and the area known as Freuchie. A rather macabre relic, in the form of the skull of one of the Comyns, was preserved and is still held and closely guarded today. The cranium is hinged and in it were kept a number of important documents. There is supposed to be a kind of legendary curse on this relic, that if it passes out of the possession of the family, then the family would lose all its property in Strathspey. Another equally likely legend telling how the skull came into the possession of the Grants, is that a Comyn was in love with one of the Grant ladies, and abducted her. The couple were chased by four Grants; the Comyn was killed and his head brought back, together with the Grant lady.
The older part of the present castle is believed to have been built in the 15th century, and was first called Ballachastell, which, being interpreted, means the Castle of the Pass. This name was subsequently changed to the original name of the locality, Castle Freuchie, or, the Castle of the Heather. The original building was L-shaped, with the wing projected to protect two sides of the main structure. The present Babetts Tower was part of this wing which protected the raised courtyard at the front of the present castle.
The main structure was an oblong block running east and west, which contained the hall, over a vaulted basement which is still part of the ground floor. The hall is, of course, the present dining-room, being 50ft. long and 30ft. wide, lit by large windows to the south, next to the angle formed by Babetts Tower. The entrance was by a doorway in the angle with the tower, and there was a wide staircase in the wing leading to the first floor, and then a turret staircase to the upper floors. The present courtyard was then a raised terrace containing offices and stores. Sir Ludovic Grant (1743-1773), who designed the plan of Grantown-on-Spey, completely enveloped the old building described above in a new construction which he erected round it. This latter [5] included the two wings to the south on either side of the raised courtyard, which was then used for such purposes as the dairy, kitchens, and offices. Underneath were rooms for candle-making, brewing, and the dungeon. This is the castle as it is today.
Babetts Tower is so called because of a tale that in the tapestry room at the top of the tower there was a hidden door leading into a 'blackness' into which a Barbara Grant-daughter of one of the chiefs-was thrust until she obeyed her father's wishes. It is a fact that there was a Barbara Grant who did not wish to marry the man her father proposed for her. However, no skeleton was found when the cupboard was opened up in 1880, only hidden muskets, the racks for which could be seen until recently, under the linen shelves. Thus one can hope poor Barbara was let out of the 'blackness' by her father. But whatever happened, she has left her name to the tower.
The present building layout is rather back to front: the back entrance is approached up some quite imposing steps and across a courtyard, then through a long narrow passage to the entrance hall and front door. If one approaches by the front door, on the other hand, from the outside one has the impression that it is the back door! In the entrance hall there is a curving stairway on either hand to the upper floors. Apart from the old Babetts Tower, the exterior is a plain and unadorned structure standing on a slight mound.
I paid my first visit to the castle when I accompanied my family to Grantown in 1919. Incidentally, this was the only occasion on which my father (the 31st Chief) visited Grant property. I have a fairly clear recollection of that visit; I was aged seven. We were taken round by Colonel Grant Smith, the Strathspey 'estate factor' (land agent) who had collected us from the Grant Arms hotel where we were staying. The castle entrance hall and walls were covered with weapons of all types-cannons, muskets, guns, pistols, claymores, broad swords, armour and saddle furniture, sporting guns, blunder- busses, rifles, pikes, and targes, etc. Many of these were the weapons provided by Sir James Grant for his 'Company of Fencibles', which he raised with hist own money in 1793, in support of King George III, when a Napoleonic invasion was threatened. It may be of interest for posterity to have an outline description of these warlike articles taken from a disposal description in 1977, when the Earl of Seafield sold them to the government for around a quarter of a million pounds, after the closure of Cullen House. A list is given in Appendix I. The armoury and the uniforms which were stored in the attics were considered to be one of the greatest and most unique private collections existing. Some of the collection is now in the United Services Museum, Edinburgh Castle; the rest is partly in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland and partly in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. Hanging from the ceiling of the stair wells were a number of very old flags sewn on netting to keep them together. Leaning on the right-hand stair-post was a length of timber about the size of a short railway sleeper. I was told [6] that this was the laird's 'hanging beam', used when Grant was a regality. On the first floor in the left wing were the drawing-room and the library, and at the back, stretching across the castle, was the dining-room. All the walls were, of course, hung with a great many portraits of the Chief's family and of other Grants. In the drawing-room I saw the Comyn's skull on a writing desk. Nearby, at the end of the room, was the Byfield organ, 15ft. high and 7ft. wide, which had been given to Sir James Grant of Grant by Queen Anne, together with some special glass dishes, as a token for his agreeing to give up the name and arms of Colquhoun of Luss. The organ was removed to the drawing-room of Cullen House some time after the vacation of Castle Grant about 1950, and was subsequently sold in the Christie's auction for £5,000.
Above these rooms, as in the other wing, were a large number of rather box-like, white-painted bedrooms. The attics were of interest, as among the lumber were strange musical instruments, such as a piano with glass dishes instead of wires. The most interesting of all the attics was the tapestry or ladies' room at the top of Babett's Tower, with an outside walk round. This room was full of tapestry and I think there was a large four-poster and a mass of embroidered silk hangings and covers. It is said that in times of danger the Grants used to hide their ladies in this room. A list of the portraits of the Grant family and adherents, hanging in the Castle in 1880, is given in Appendix II.
During the military requisition in the Second World War Lady Seafield continued to live in the unrequisitioned part of the castle. As was to be expected, there were a number of different units in occupation during this period. One, for example, was from India, and in accordance with their own customs proceeded to light small fires for cooking all over the wide boarded floors; it is thought that one of these caused the fire that destroyed one of the buildings adjoining the courtyard. An amusing story I have heard is that Lady Seafield, with her never-failing gift for generous hospitality, had a large platter of scones baked for the refreshment of a party of 'Jocks' then quartered in the castle. When the unit was drawn up in the courtyard for an important 'Brass Hat' inspection, just as the order 'General Salute-present arms' was given, the bakehouse door opened, Lady Seafield and her cook emerged and walked into the yard, staggering under a heavy load of scones, right between the saluting base and the Jocks'. Lady Seafield took not the slightest notice of the officers, and, of course, the general's eyes nearly popped out of his head. The castle was fully occupied as a home until the end of the last war (1945); only part of it being requisitioned for military occupation. There was a fire in the back premises off the courtyard, and dry rot broke out in the upper floor. Incidentally, this fungus disease occurred in a great number of mansions following military occupation. I think this was due, not so much to lack of maintenance, but perhaps because of the Service habit of cleanliness, which was normally carried out by swilling down floors with water. Lady Seafield [7] decided to vacate the castle; although good efforts were subsequently made by the estate to restrain the fungi, it had met with no complete success.
Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus wrote in her memoirs in the early part of the 19th century: 'Our great house then was Castle Grant, the residence of our Chief. It was about twenty miles off down Speyside. My Father and mother were much there when they first married. My aunts Mary and Lizzy delighted in the gaiety of a scene so new to them. Generally about 50 people sat down to dinner in the great hall, in the shooting season, of all ranks. There was not exactly a "below the salt" division so marked at the table, but the company at the lower end was of a very different description from those at the top, and treated accordingly with whisky punch instead of wine. Neither was there a distinct "yellow drawing room" party, though a large portion of the guests seldom obtruded themselves on the more refined section of the company unless on a dancing evening, when all again united in the cleared hall. Sir James Grant was hospitable in the feudal style. His house was open to all; to each and all he bade a hearty welcome, and he was glad to see his table filled, and scrupulous to pay fit attention to every individual present; but in spite of much cordiality of manner it was somewhat in the King style, the Chief condescending to the Clan, above the best of whom he considered himself extremely. It was rough royalty too, plenty, but rude plenty. A footman in the gorgeous green and scarlet livery behind every chair, but they were mere gillies, lads quite untutored, sons of small tenants brought for the occasion, the autumn gathering, and fitted with the suit they best filled'. Times have changed-now nearly two hundred years on!
It is worth recording here that there was an important army supply depot in large war-time store buildings on railway company land at Grantown station, and that this depot remained in active use for some years after the end of the war. Now the railway has long since been packed up by British Rail.
In 1965 I wrote a sketchy outline of the castle and its possible future as I saw matters then. This is in Appendix III. I was recently interested to read in The Times that the castle was mentioned in an article about a conservation group, under the heading 'Save Britain's Heritage'. Many Grants at home and especially those in North American and the Antipodes have expressed great interest in the castle. Perhaps the foregoing may bring about its eventual restoration and maintenance, as part of the national heritage.