What is recorded here

Rothes Castle rose on a hill above Moray around 1200 when Peter de Pollok built it to watch traffic along Strathspey. Its outer wall still leans over the High Street, but the rest of the structure left the castle and reappeared inside the roofs, hearths and yard walls of the town after fire broke the place open in 1662. The castle did not disappear so much as change shape, becoming the town that surrounds its remaining stone.

Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Rothes Castle as Castle (medieval), Motte (medieval)(possible). The official map says its point is accurate as follows: NGR given to the nearest 10m. The record does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Rothes Castle was built in the late 13th or early 14th century by the Keith family, a prominent Scottish noble lineage. It is historically significant as the seat of the Earls of Kintore and as a key stronghold in the defense of northeast Scotland during the medieval period.

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