Rothes

Rothes is a town in Moray, Scotland, on the banks of the River Spey, 10 miles south of Elgin on the A941. The town has a population of 1,252 (2011). A settlement has been here since AD 600.History and CastleAt the south end of the village lie the remains of Rothes Castle built on a hill by Peter de Pollok about 1200 to command traffic up and down this stretch of Strathspey. The castle's remains consist of a fragment of the massive outer wall overlooking the High Street of Rothes town. The castle was four storeys high, with a portcullis guarding the entrance to the inner courtyard and a drawbridge that crossed the dry moat, which ran between the outer wall and the hill on which the castle stood. Sir Norman Leslie, the castle's owner, was host to King Edward I of England on 29 July 1296, during his triumphal march through Scotland following its conquest by him in 1296. On the visit, Sir Norman pledged his allegiance to the king.In the 1390s Rothes Castle and its lands were passed to the Leslie family, who would later become the Earls of Rothes. Some of the earliest houses in Rothes were built from stones of the castle, which were taken by villagers to build dwellings after the castle was set alight and destroyed in 1662. The town can clearly be seen on maps even before this date. The villagers had burnt the castle to its current state, since it had become a refuge for tramps and thieves after being abandoned. Rothes's earls sold their Moray estates to the Seafield family around 1700, and by this time Rothes had grown past the immediate area of the now long-ruined castle, into a village aligned east-west along the line of the burn running into the Spey. After selling up, the earls of Rothes moved to Fife, buying land which, much later, would become the site of the new town of Glenrothes.