Crombie

Crombie (aka Crummie, Crommey) Castle is an architecturally messy mansion beside the Crombie Burn in Banffshire. It was a three-and-a-half-storey L-plan tower house built in 1542 by John Innes of Crombie.

Around 1570, an eastern addition converted the house to an L-plan, and later additions and alterations occurred in the early 1600s, and circa 1820, 1860, 1910, and after the 1920s. In the early 16th century, it was owned by John Meldrum of Laithers (approx. 1590–1647) and his wife, Margaret (Duff). They gave it to their second (youngest) son, the Rev. George Meldrum (1616-1692), who became the minister of Glass and the laird at Marnoch.

In 1664, Rev. George Meldrum was suspended from the post-Reformation Scottish church for refusing to recognise Episcopacy. In 1680, he married Jean Duff, a cousin who was the second daughter of Alexander Duff of Keithmore.

Their eldest daughter, Jean Meldrum, married James Duff, a younger son of Duff of Drummuir, and their son, William Duff, sold Crombie in 1744 to James Ogilvy, the 3rd Earl of Findlater.

Today the house is owned again by people named Innes, who are restoring the complex.

References

—‘Aberdeenshire HER – NJ55SE0006 – Crombie Castle’. Aberdeenshire Council website.

—‘Meldrum, George Minister of Glass, Laird of Crombie Marnoch, Reverend Mr’, Patrick’s People website.

—Richard Fwynallen, 2017, ‘Crombie Castle in Banffshire’, The Kitchen Table website.