A History of Barra Castle
A prehistoric fort on Barra Hill, defended by three concentric earthworks, and long called ` Cumines Camp, ' is traditionally connected with the victory of Barra, gained in the Bruce Field near North Mains by King Robert Bruce over Comyn Earl of Buchan, the Englishman Sir John Mowbray, and Sir David de Brechin, 22 May 1308. Bruce at the time lay sick at Inverurie, but, roused by a foray of the Comyns from Old Meldrum, he demanded to be mounted; and his force of 700 men soon routed the enemy, 1000 strong, chasing them far and wide, then swept the lands of the Comyn, so wasting them with fire and sword that fifty years later men mourned the ` heirschip ' (harrying) of Buchan-Hill Burton, Hist. Scot., ed. 1876, vol. ii., p. 257.
The lands of Barra were once a possession of the Comyn family prior to the Wars of Independence, whereby they passed to the Family of King. Barra Castle, or its predecessor was in 1247, and for more than two centuries after, the seat of the Kings (later of Dudwick in Ellon), who along with the Forbes Family, were long at feud with the Seton Family of Meldrum and the House of Gordon. Nevertheless, Barra passed by purchase from the Kings of Barra to the Seton’s of Meldrum in the 16th century.
William Seton of Meldrum had three sons by his first wife Janet Gordon, daughter of James Gordon of Lesmoir. His eldest son, Alexander inherited Meldrum and his second son was John Seton of Lumphard (Lumphart), Broomhill and Mounie (the first Seton’s of Mounie who constructed Mounie castle and later sold Mounie to the Farquhar’s). His third son was William Seton of Slattie. From his second marriage, William Seton married Margaret Innes of Leuchars and had his 4th son George Seton of Barra, Chancellor of St. Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen, and a 5th son James Seton of Bourtie and 1st of Pitmedden (ancestor of the Seton Baronet’s of Pitmedden).
Following the Seton’s, the estate of Barra was held by the Reid Family in the 17th century, before passing to the Ramsay family. The Ramsay’s held Barra until the 18th century, when it passed by marriage to the Forbes-Irvine family of Drum. Francis Hugh Forbes-Irvine, the 21st Laird of Drum (third son of Alexander Forbes-Irvine, 20th Laird of Drum), married Mary Ramsay, only child of Col. John Ramsay of Bourtie, Barra and Straloch and Susan Innes (who married as her second husband, William Henry Nares - Commander RN (1786-1867) ) and these two estates were to pass to the junior line of the Irvines of Drum.
In recent times Barra came to be associated with the Nicholas Bogdan, the renowned archaeologist who was educated at Gordonstoun. His Russian emigré father, Andrew Bogdanovich, was a doctor at London's Great Ormond Street hospital, who altered his surname after anti-Russian attention. After Gordonstoun, Bogdan read archaeology at Queen's University, Belfast, later undertaking postgraduate research on the origins of Scottish castles at St Andrews. Castellated architecture was in his blood, for his grandmother, who married into the family of Straloch and Barra, became a major force in the restoration of Barra Castle in Aberdeenshire, his home throughout his life until his sudden passing away in 2002.