title: Waterton Castle
text: # Waterton Castle
  
  Waterton Castle is a ruined 17th-century tower house, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, north of the River Ythan.
  
  ## History
  
  The property belonged to Kinloss Abbey; the Knights Templar acquired it, and it passed from them to the Bannermans around 1560. The Forbeses thereafter owned it until 1770 (at least). It is suggested that the castle was built between 1630 and 1640.
  
  In 1652 the Kennedys of Kermuck murdered John Forbes of Waterton.
  
  ## Structure
  
  Only a vaulted basement remains; it measures 4.4 metres (14 ft) by 3.9 metres (13 ft), the walls being 0.7 metres (2 ft 4 in) thick and up to about 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. A sketch from 1770 showed a four-storey building comprising a central block with wings to east and west. These projected a little from the main block, and had crow-stepped gables The vaulted building bears the inscription in the inner south wall: "This stone marks the site of the ancient seat of the family of Forbes, Lairds of Waterton A.D. 1630 - 1770." In 1844 a drinking horn was dug from the castle ruins; in 1863 it was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland.
  
  