Glenbuchat Heritage

1 Treasures of Castle Newe Introduction

Treasures of Castle Newe
Built in 1831, around the old house of Newe which was built in 1694, Castle Newe was a beautiful building with a hint of Indian architecture. The house was built for the Forbes family and was full of treasures especially from the Indian Continent. Unfortunately, the house was demolished in 1926 and the contents sold off and distributed to the family.
This Album records some of these treasures, especially pictures, which have been preserved from newe Castle

The Photos above show:

1 Castle Newe. Photo taken about 1910 by Sir Charles Forbes 5th Baronet using a colour process he invented.
2 Castle Sitting Room
3 Bedroom Fireplace with multitude of pictures.
4 Fireplace with the Forbes crest

In 1784 John Forbes of Bellabeg House first went to India as purser on an East India Company ship.
After a few trips he set up a trading house in Bombay and amassed a fortune. He returned to Scotland and his beloved Strathdon in 1796. He then acquired a lot of the estates up the Don from Bellabeg. He also gave a lot of money to good causes

Click for more details about Bombay Jock

He died in 1821 and left a large part of his fortune to his nephew Charles Forbes.
In 1831 Charles Forbes, John’s nephew, commissioned the building of a ‘Castle’ house on the site of the old House of New which had been built in 1604, Note the original spelling was New Castle, but as the mail was being sent to Newcastle, Sir Charles Forbes renamed the castle ‘Castle Newe’, and this also applied to the the area and the hill behind Newe, Ben Newe

Click for more details about Castle Newe

Click for Album of Castle Newe Photographs

The family ran out of money to run the estate and the castle and were unable to maintain the estate or the Castle.
The castle was demolished in 1926 and many of the contents sold off.

The following newspaper entry describes the background to the sale.

Death of Sir C. S. Forbes
Sir Charles Stewart Fordes died yesterday in his London house in Holland Park.
Sir Chales, who was the fifth Baronet, was sixty years old, and was formerly a landed proprietor in Aberdeenshire, having had a country house at Castle Newe, Strathdon. He is survived by Lady Forbes, Emma Theodora, daughter of the late Mr Robert Maxwell; by one son, John Stewart Forbes, who succeeds him in the baronetcy; and by four daughters.
Sir Charles Forbes was born in 1857. and succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1884. He was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was formerly a Captain in the 4th Volunteer Battalion Gordon Highlanders. A Deputy Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. he was for u time a member of the Alford District Committee of the County Council. Many years ago, at a gathering of the Castle Newe tenantry he hinted that the family might be compelled to leave the Strathdon district, " not from choice, but leaving politics aside, from circumstances over which he had no control. "

In 1900 there was a series of sales of the Castle Newe estate. Delnadamph was sold to Mr J. J. Moubray of Namoor Candacraig House and a large portion of Candacraig estate to Mr A . F. Falconer, and part of the lands of Deskry to the late Colonel Leith of Glenkindie. afterwards Lord Burgh. In 1808 the estate of Edinglassie was sold to the Right Hon. H. J. Tennant, and in 1917 another part of the estate was sold to Mr A. F. Wallace.

At Martinmas 1924 Sir Charles sold the House of Newe and the remaining lands, including the home farm, the farms of Buchaam and Mill of Newe and a wooded hill behind the Castle to Provost Donald Munro of Banchory. Provost Munro sold the farms and most of the timber on the estate. Castle Newe itself was bought for demolition by Messrs Brand, Dundee, and is now practically razed. Sir Charles Forbes bought back from Provost Munro a cottage on the hillside behind his ancestral home, known as Ben Newe and by residence there during the summer and autumn maintained his connection with the district. The new baronet. Sir John Stewart Forbes, came of age in January 1922, and on that occasion, after having passed from the Military College at Woolwich, was entertained at garden party at Castle Newe and presented with a gold watch and a riding saddle from the people of the district. He has been serving as a Lieutenant of the Royal Engineers in India

The following are Newspaper adverts for some of the sales.

Aberdeen Press and Journal - Saturday 23 May 1925
Castle Newe, Strath Don. Sale Of Large Collection Of House Hold Furnishings. Full sized Billiard Table. Rock Crystal Chandeliers. Turkey Carpets. Hall And Bedroom furniture. Turning Lathe, And A Large Quantity Wood, On Tuesday and Wednesday, 2nd And 3rd June, 1925.
Particulars Bills and Future Advertisements. John Milne, Auctioneer, North Silver Street. Aberdeen.

Pictures From Castle Newe. Disposed of by Auction at Aberdeen.

The sale of oil paintings, water colours and engravings, removed from Castle Newe, Strathdon, took place in the Bon- Accord Auction Saloons, Aberdeen, yesterday.
There was a large attendance and keen bidding. Mr James Milne was auctioneer.
Tho following were some of the leading purchases: —Oil paintings—Lady in red dress and bow, artist unknown,£49, miniature Prince Charlie, artist unknown, £23; flower piece, artist unknown, £12 10s; lady, artist unknown, £S ,10s; gentleman with red cloak, artist unknown, £8 5s; lady in white dress, artist unknown, £7 5s; the camp, artist unknown, £6; flower piece, by Tunoscothe, £4 15s; The pageant, artist unknown, £4 7s 6d; gentleman with wig, £4 2s 6d. Engravings, etc. —Engraving Sir Walter Scott, after Raeburn, £7; coloured Arundel print, £4 ss; pair chromos of Italian scenes, £2 8s; pair of illuminated Arundel prints, £2

Aberdeen Press and Journal - Tuesday 22 March 1927

Demolition of castle Newe STRATHDON. ABERDEENSHIRE.
For Sale, 200 splendid doors all sizes; 120 Windows, Wood and Marble Mantelpieces, with Grates. Stained Panelled Shutters and other Wood Fitting, Baths, Wash-hand Basins, W.C. Sets, N.P Towel rails. Radiators Fire Hoses. Heating and other Pipes. Boilers, Sinks. Large quantity of Woodwork, all classes; Slates, Lining, Pavement Slabs. Dressed Stone-work, Sills. Lintels Corners, etc.
J. CLARK, Foreman, Castle Newe, or CHARLES BRAND, 6 8 North Lindsay Street. Dundee.

The following article relating to the sale of Castle Newe gives a good description of the Castle and the estate

Aberdeen Press and Journal - Thursday 22 January 1925
NEWE.
The estate of Newe, 13 miles from Dinnet Station 18 miles from Alford, has been bought by Provost Donald Munro, Banchory, purely commercial transaction. extends to 1286 acres, which 390 acres are arable, 490 acres pasture and hill grazing, and 406 acres woodlands. The arable land and timber are particularly good. The Quarry Wood, behind the Castle, and the policies contain some the finest old Scots fit and larch now Donside.

An attractive residential property, the situation Castle Newe itself is famed, the view of the imposing pile the south shoulder of Ben Newe being one of the scenic beauties in the north of Scotland. While the main portion of the Castle is comparatively modern construction, having been built in 1831 to plans prepared Archibald Simpson, the eminent Aberdeen architect, the old house, which is incorporated with the new building, dates from 1604.

The Castle, sits 898 feet above sea level, elegant and the castellated style, is built largely of-freestone. Lawns slope down to j the Don, which runs through the policies, and is spanned two footbridges within the grounds. Gardens and grounds are ' delightfully laid out, and there is sheet water with pretty rock garden.

The accommodation the Castle consists of entrance hall, cloak-room, drawing-rooms; billiard, dining, smoking, and business rooms; 11 bedrooms, with five dressing rooms, two boudoirs, five bathrooms, and ample servants' accommodation both within and adjoining the Castle. The electric light is installed. Grouse, pheasants, partridges, hares, and rabbits, snipe, woodcock, blackcock, and afford good sport. The fishing extends fully 1 ¾ miles on the Don from both banks, and about 1 ¾ miles from the left bank only.
On the estate are three farms —the Home Farm, Buchaam, and Mill of Newe, and meal mill.

At one time almost the whole of upper Donside was held by different branches of the Forbes family, and Newe is amongst the last lands to have been held by them those parts. It has been in their possession for about 450 years.
Its first proprietor of that name was William of the Dauch —and Newe— and Sir Charles Forbes, 1st baronet of Nowe, as, the direct heir male and lineal descendant William of Dauch," was in 1833, by a jury, before the Sheriff of Aberdeenshire, of which General Hay of Rannes was the chancellor chairman, served heir male of Alexander Lord Forbes Pitsligo, the father of the last lord, who was attainted for having joined the standard Prince Charles Edward in the 1745.

On the death in 1792, without male issue, of Major John Forbes, whose only child was afterwards Lady Grant of Monymusk, the family of Newe became represented by the Rev. George Forbes of Leochel, son of John Forbes of Bellabeg, a grandson William, the 5th guidman of newe. A younger brother of the Rev. George Forbes was Mr John Forbes, who established the great mercantile house of Forbes and Co., of Bombay. He gave many benefactions, including £10,000 to the Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, in the grounds of which there is a handsome obelisk to his memory and that of his nephew and successor, who paid the legacy duty £1000. He purchased the estate of Newe, initiated system of great improvements in the district, and entailed the estates Newe, Bellabeg, etc., upon his nephew Charles, son of the Rev. George Forbes.

Charles Forbes, also member of the house of Forbes and Co., purchased Skellater and Corgarff from the Forbes of Skellater, was created a baronet of the United Kingdom 1823, and for years represented Malmesbury in Parliament. His eldest son, John, a director of the East India Company, who died in 1840, was for some his colleague in the representation of Malmesbury. Mr John Forbes’ son Charles succeeded to the baronetcy when grandfather died in 1849. The second baronet dying unmarried in 1852, the title devolved on his uncle Charles Forbes, whose grandson Charles Stewart Forbes 5th Baronet D.L. of Aberdeenshire, succeeded his father in 1881.
Finally, an entry in a newspaper which alludes to the fashionable social life that was lived at Castle Newe just a couple of decades before it was demolished.

Dundee Evening Telegraph - Friday 11 March 1927

Castle Newe. couple of years ago Sir Charles Forbes of Newe, Aberdeenshire, sold this estate, after had been the possession of his family for four and a half centuries, and settled in London. Now Newe has been disposed of by the new owners for demolition, and thus passes a fine old Highland home which some forty years ago and more was a rendezvous for celebrities, the then 'Prince of Wales' or ' Marlborough House ' set, for its chatelaine in those days was one of the lovely " Moncrieff " sisters. The daughters of this Lady Forbes of Newe are Mrs John Brinton, formerly Mrs James of West Dean Park and Mrs John Blundell Leigh. Castle Newe is partly old and partly modern, the older part dating from 1604 and the newer, part with its great tower 90 feet high, having been built in 1831. one of the most picturesque parts Strathdon, and was full of treasures of most kinds.

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