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Kilcoy Castle was built around 1580 by the Stewart family, and completed by Alexander Mackenzie, third son of Colin Cam Mackenzie of Kintail around 1618. As a result of his marriage (contract 15 August 1611) to the widow of Sir James Stewart of Kilcoy, he had a charter of the lands of Kilcoy dated 18 July 1616 and a further charter of the Barony of Kilcoy dated 29 January 1618. The estates passed through the male line of the Mackenzies of Kilcoy until the death in 1883 of Sir Evan Mackenzie, 2nd Baronet, when they were inherited by his eldest daughter, who married a Colonel Burton.
It fell into a ruinous state during the late 18th and 19th Centuries and was restored in 1891 by the Inverness Architects Ross and McBeth, who added a four-storey wing to the north. The castle was restored from a ruinous condition in about 1891.
The castle is a Z-plan tower house. It has four storeys with two round corner towers. The slated roof has crow-stepped gables and (probably late 17th century) dormer-head windows. There are many gun loops.
The castle has been recently sold. Its gardens are periodically open to the public under Scotland’s Gardens Scheme.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.
