Crombie Castle

Crombie Castle is a tower house dating to approximately 1542, with significant later additions, restoration work begun in the late 1930s and remaining incomplete. The castle is rectangular in plan, with a three-story tower, corbelled angle bartizans to the south, crowstepped gables, and rubble stacks. The exterior is harled with chamfered granite ashlar margins. Further wings and additions were constructed in approximately 1570, 1820, 1860, and 1910.

The east elevation features a 1570 addition that creates an L-shaped plan. A round-arched pend, added in approximately 1910, provides access to the entrance within the 1570 wing. The north elevation displays the gable end of the original 1542 tower, with a window on each floor and a wide-mouthed gunloop below the first-floor window. The west elevation has two windows at the first floor and a gunloop; three piended dormerheads break the eaves at the second floor. The south elevation shows the 1542 tower with ground and first-floor additions, a gablehead window flanked by truncated corner bartizans.

The circa 1570 addition is a three-story wing projecting to the east, forming a right angle to the original tower. It has single windows on the second and third floors, and a corbelled course at the second floor, likely supporting a bartizan. A link wall, added in approximately 1910, connects this wing. A circa 1820 wing projects from the south gable and is a single-story and attic addition with windows on each floor to each elevation. A circa 1860 wing, single-story and gabled, projects at a right angle to the west and was later raised to a single-story and attic level. A lean-to porch addition to the north provides access to the tower. A circa 1910 two-story wing extends to the east, parallel with the 1570 wing, and incorporates a ground-floor window to the east gable, a round-headed doorway to the south, and a crowstepped gabled dormerhead with finial, breaking the eaves at the first floor.

The tower house's interior contains two vaulted chambers at ground floor level. A kitchen is located to the north, with access to the first floor, and a dungeon lies beneath the service stair. The first-floor great hall features a large fireplace in the center of the north wall, with a concrete lintel and a modern fireplace on the south wall. A plaster armorial and a timber open beamed ceiling on corbels are also present. A projecting masonry chamber is located in the northwest corner, known as the “Laird's Lug”, with a diamond opening to the ceiling accessed via a trapdoor from the second floor. The second floor has an undivided attic space, with windows to the northwest and south and a partially rebuilt fireplace to the south. Blocked doors once led to the bartizans. The circa 1570 wing includes a vaulted basement, a straight newel stair to the first floor, and a newel stair to the second floor, which formerly provided access to a now-demolished bartizan above the entrance. The interior is currently uninhabited and lacks plasterwork or fixtures.