Elgin, Scotland Attractions

Duffus Castle (5mi/8km northwest of Elgin), once the seat of the Murray family, is a fine example of a Norman motte and bailey castle and it dominates the flat farmland between Elgin and the coast. Surrounded by a water-filled moat, the wooden palisades were replaced by a stone tower house with stout walls.

At the end of the 15th C the episcopal seat at Spynie (2mi/3km to the north of Elgin) was one of the finest sacred buildings in Scotland. In the 17th C an Italianate terraced garden was added. The massive David's Tower was built between 1470 and 1480 by Bishop David Stewart as a defense against attacks by the Gordon Clan.

Before the diocese chose Elgin as its center, the bishop's seat was in Birnie (3mi/4.8km to the south of Elgin). A Norman church was built on the site of a sixth century Celtic chapel c 1140 and the church is thus able to claim to be the oldest surviving church on Scottish soil.

Little is known of the origin and age of Burghead Well (7.5mi/12km to the northwest of Elgin). It is a man-made cave which was probably carved out of the rock as part of an Iron Age fort. The 3ft/1m deep water-hole may well have been used as a baptismal font.

The Elgin town museum (no. 1) has notable archaeological and geological sections relating to the Moray region.

Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his brother Andrew were educated at Gordonstoun boarding school. It was founded in 1934 by the German educationalist Kurt Hahn, after fleeing Germany.

The front of Duff o'Bracco's House (1694) with its pretty arcade is among the several 17th and 18th C preserved town houses which line the High Street.

The town museum in Lossiemouth (pop. 7,400; 6mi/9.6km to the north of Elgin) concentrates on the role of the fishing industry locally, but it is also a place of pilgrimage for British socialists as the study of Ramsay MacDonald, Britain's first Labor prime minister and a son of Lossiemouth, has been recreated here.

The centerpiece of this collection is a 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom I. Other bikes and historic automobiles are to be found in the Moray Motor Museum.

Pluscarden Abbey stands in the shadow of several ancient trees (6mi/9.6km southwest of Elgin). It was founded in 1230 for members of the Valliscaulian Order. Like the Cathedral in Elgin, it was destroyed by the "Wolf of Badenoch" in 1390. Benedictine monks settled here until 1560. Followers of the Benedictine order returned in 1943 and restored the ruins.

The River Findhorn winds its way through a narrow sandstone gorge about 8mi/12.8km south of Forres. From a footpath above the ravine near Randolph's Leap, there is a beautiful view over the babbling waters of the Findhorn.