ROSEHEARTY Aberdeenshire
Rosehearty is an impressive sea side town with a ruin of Pitsligo castle, the oldest part of the castle is a massive keep built in 1424 in the basement was a
vaulted kitchen, then the banqueting hall, then above that was the sleeping apartment witch contained 24 beds, it was built by Sir William Forbs, his descendant the first lord of Forbs
of Pitsligo improved the fishing haven of Rosehearty this secured the parish in 1633.
The 4th lord Pitsligo was born in 1678 and educated in France, he succeeded his father in 1690 and took his seat in Scottish parliament in 1700, after
the union with England he became a Jacobite, as he disagreed with the union, he joined his cousin in the Rising of the 15, when this failed he fled to the continent, but he returned
soon after as his name had not been placed on the list of attainders. At the 45 he was sixty seven years old, he never renounced his loyalty to the house of Stuart throwing all he had
into the struggle he became one of the best loved landowner in the North East
Of Scotland, he formed a band of volunteer cavalry of the gentlemen of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire.
On the 5th of October 1745 he rode to Aberdeen were the troop had gathered, he moved to the front of the troops and shouted
‘OH LORD THOU KNOWEST OUR CAUSE IS JUST Gentlemen March.’
When he escaped from Culloden lord Pitsligo knowing that his own people would not give him up hid in Elgin at the house of Mr William King, a week later he made it
back to Pitsligo castle, with the help of his wife and tenants he spent the next four years hiding sometimes in caves under bridges but never caught, the hunt for him then cooled off,
then ten years after Culloden he narrowly escaped capture in the house of Achiries now in his eightieth year in his son’s house in the parish of Rathen, he hid in a recess behind the
bed of a lady visitor, who coughed loudly all the time the red coats were searching her room to cover up the asthmatic breathing of the old man, as soon as the soldiers had left the
room, he emerged from the recess and told the servants to see that his pursuers were given breakfast and a drink of warm ale, for they are only doing their duty and cannot bear me any
ill will he said
Lord Pitsligo died at the age of eighty-four on the 21st of December 1762 and was buried in the family vault in the Kirk of Pitsligo.
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