KILDRUMMIE.

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Kildrummie having been recovered by Bruce, subsequently became the prison of Duncan,Earl of Fife, and his family, he having been captured at Perth , where Edward Baliol had lefthim in command, after gaining the battle of Dupplin.

In 1335, David Comyn, Earl of Atholl, attacked the Castle , but alarmed at the array ofnobles leagued against him, he raised the siege, and, marching to encounter them, lost his lifein the battle of Culblain. The Castle of Kildrummie was, during these events, in charge ofLady Christian Bruce, who married Gratney, Earl of Mar.

In 1341, David the Second, after having been expatriated for nine years, returned fromFrance , and on the 20th June of that year was at Kildrummie; he also visited it in Augustand November, 1342. He passed the autumn of 1361 and the commencement of the follow-ing year in Aberdeenshire ; during the former, in consequence of a quarrel with Thomas, Earlof Mar, he besieged and took the Castle . That Earl having accepted a pension from the thirdEdward, and become a resident in England, incurred the forfeiture of his estates; upon his ob-taining pardon, however, they appear to have been restored, and returning to his native land,he died at Kildrummie, and was buried under the eastern buildings of the Castle . In 1365,David the Second was again at Kildrummie, but no event of importance appears to have oc-curred during the Royal visit on that occasion.

In 1403, the Castle continued to be the property of the Mar family. The Countess becamem that year a widow; her husband Sir Malcolm Drummond, brother to the late Queen ofScotland , having been, when residing at Kildrummie, attacked by a band of ruffians, imprisonedin its dungeons, and subjected to treatment that speedily terminated his existence. AlexanderStuart, natural son of the Earl of Buchan, was suspected of having been the instigator to thislawless and barbarous proceeding. He soon after appeared before the Castle with a force offreebooters, carried it by assault, and whether by violence or persuasion obtained in marriagethe widowed Countess. To allay the ferment of popular opinion, and to give a favourablecolour to his usurpation, this ferocious descendant of the “ Wolf of Badenoch” obtained thefollowing scene to be enacted:—Stuart appeared at the gate, and was there met by theCountess of Mar, who, in presence of the Bishop of Ross, and of the vassals and tenantry, as-sembled for the occasion, received from him the keys of the Castle , declaring that he gave themfreely to be disposed of as she pleased ; the Countess then, as had been previously arranged,declared that she chose Alexander Stuart as her husband, and gave him in marriage the Earl-dom of Mar, with the Castle of Kildrummie, and the lands appertaining to that noble family.This act was ratified and confirmed by Robert the Third, notwithstanding the person murderedto make way for this usurpation was the brother-in-law of the King, and that no doubt existed inthe public mind of Stuart having been the murderer, as he became the successful wooer of the un-fortunate Countess. Upon the death of Stuart, the Erskines claimed the Earldom in default ofheirs male ; but James the Second bestowed it on his son John, who, dying unmarried, it was givenby the weak and unfortunate James the Third to his favourite, Robert Cochrane, of whose ap-pearance and retinue Tytler gives the following description: “ His tent or pavilion was of silk,the fastening chains were richly gilt; he was accompanied by a body guard of three hundred