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@Infoseepage
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The signboard mentioned that Kindrochit's tower house was probably the 6th largest in Scotland when it was built.
This and the time when it was known to have been built has me imaging something like Threave's overbuilt tower.
Most of the castle is fairly lower ruins that don't survive above a single story. A few slit windows, niches and other features survive, enough to guess at some room functions and to grasp the general layout, but little is known about the height of the towers, walls, etc.
This does seem to have been a very heavily built structure, and whether that was for defensive reasons of simple need for more insulation in the mountains or some combination of both, is unknown.
By around 1390, the castle had evolved into something like what left the present day ruins. It had massively thick walls. In the case of the Drummond tower, a tower house splat planted on top over a part of earlier castle which had a different wall alignment, the walls were 3 meters thick. That's thick enough to have intramural straight stairs within the wall thickness and not have them be shoulder hugging skinny.
This is what the castle is thought to have looked like in the 15th century. A castle/fortification was probably first built at the site of the bridge in the 11th century, by the command of Malcolm III, aka Malcolm Canmore. The castle's name, Kindrochit comes from Ceann Drochaid, which means Bridge Head. So, it's literally Bridge Head Castle and constructed by a guy whose' name means Malcolm Big Head.
This is the Clunie Water, taken from the newer bridge at Braemar. The old bridge associated with the castle was about where the building on the right is in my photo.
I explored the town a bit at both the start and end of my journey. Braemar actually had yet another castle, this one at it's heart, guarding a bridge over the Clunie Water. It's history is fairly poorly documented.
You can find some fascinating accounts of his life here:
https://www.electricscotland.com/history/newspapers/caledonia/caledonia_aulddubrach.pdf
He died in the year 1824 at the ripe old age of 110 years old. He fought at the Battle of Culloden in 1745 and is believed to have been the oldest living Jacobite. His portrait was painted in 1822 and hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
Perhaps more interesting than the mausoleum is the humbler grave that lies against it's side. It's of Pàdraig Grannd an Dubh-bhruaich, aka Peter Grant or Auld Dubrach.
The cemetery has the mausoleum for the Farquharsons of Invercauld, which is sealed up tight as a drum with both gates and plate doors.
