Lickleyhead Castle is a Grade A listed historical building in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
The land on which the castle now sits was held by the Leslie family in the later Middle Ages. While no parts of the current property date from this period there was probably some form of defensive structure that was later demolished to make way for the stone building.
Around the year 1500 the land was bought by the Leith family and they constructed the oldest parts of the current castle in the 1560's or thereabouts. Both William Leith and his son Patrick Leith, lairds of Lickleyhead, were involved in conspiracies led by the Earls of Huntly to return Mary Queen of Scots to the Scottish throne. These efforts failed and they were required in turn to give bonds of security to the crown during the reign of James VI.
Lickleyhead Castle was purchased by John Forbes in the 1620's and he substantially modified the castle to make it less defensible and more lordly. His initials, his wife's and the year 1629 are carved above the front entrance to the tower that he added to the building. John Forbes was known as a Convenanter, one of those who supported the move towards a more radical Protestant Church in Scotland and were opposed by the Crown during the reign of Charles I. During the War of the Three Kingdoms he was involved in a duel with rival Sir Gilbert Menzies, though neither man was killed. His natural born son, William Forbes of Lickleyhead, turned his hand to bounty hunting around the same time and murdered Alexander Irvine, a noted royallist, in return for the sum of 3000 marks. This same William then blew off his own hand with a pistol in an accident and was later exiled after the restoration of the monarchy.
Patrick Duff of Craigston bought Lickleyhead Castle in 1723 and it was inherited by the youngest son from his first marriage, another Patrick, in 1731. The younger Patrick was a noted lawyer in Aberdeen. The Duffs extended the castle by adding the east wing in a manor style. They also added panelling in various parts of the castle which can be seen today.
Lickleyhead Castle came to Rear Admiral John Maitland through marriage during the period of the Revolutionary Wars against France. However it is unlikely he or his wife Elizabeth Ogilivie lived at Lickleyhead Castle. Instead a branch of the Leslie family inhabited the building as tenants as can be seen in tax and other records from the time. The castle was bought by the Lumsden family in the early 19th century but the same tenants, the Leslies, were kept on for many decades until the 1860's.
After numerous tragedies during the First World War the Lumsden family sold Lickleyhead Castle to the former governor of Mexico City, Dom Guillermo de Landa y Escamdon. He fled Mexico during the Mexican Revolution and spent his final years alternating between the castle and the south before passing away in 1927. Lickleyhead Castle was then inherited by his daughter Maria. Her marriage to William Arbuthnot Leslie brought the Leslie name back to Lickleyhead Castle. Their descendant, actress Rose Leslie, lived at Lickleyhead Castle as a child.
New owners the Davies family purchased Lickleyhead Castle in 2019.
