The Smithy Croft
Self-Catering Accommodation
Glenrinnes, Dufftown
The Area
Dufftown is steeped in history. The earliest known inhabitants were Picts and traces of their occupation remain in the shape of the “Elephant Stone” and a weathered Pictish cross almost six feet high.
In 566 AD a Christian community was established when St. Moulag founded Mortlach Church.
There is a legend that King Malcolm II extended the church three spears’ lengths as a thanksgiving after defeating the Danes on the haugh below the church in 1010. In the graveyard is a watch-house used to guard against body-snatchers.
The church still stands on this original site today, sitting between Dufftown’s oldest distillery, called Mortlach and its younger rival, Dufftown.
Balvenie Castle was built in the thirteenth century by the Comyn Earls of Buchan and visited by King Edward 1 of England. It was retained by the Stewarts, Earls of Atholl, from 1459 to the seventeenth century. Mary Queen of Scots, the Marquis of Montrose and Jacobites have been some of the more famous visitors to the Castle.
Dufftown was founded in 1817 by James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife. It was built close to the hamlet of Laichie to give employment after the Napoleonic wars. Like other villages of its time the Dufftown streets were laid out in a regular plan. The four main streets converge at the Clock Tower which was completed in 1839.
In 566 AD a Christian community was established when St. Moulag founded Mortlach Church.
There is a legend that King Malcolm II extended the church three spears’ lengths as a thanksgiving after defeating the Danes on the haugh below the church in 1010. In the graveyard is a watch-house used to guard against body-snatchers.
The church still stands on this original site today, sitting between Dufftown’s oldest distillery, called Mortlach and its younger rival, Dufftown.
Balvenie Castle was built in the thirteenth century by the Comyn Earls of Buchan and visited by King Edward 1 of England. It was retained by the Stewarts, Earls of Atholl, from 1459 to the seventeenth century. Mary Queen of Scots, the Marquis of Montrose and Jacobites have been some of the more famous visitors to the Castle.
Dufftown was founded in 1817 by James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife. It was built close to the hamlet of Laichie to give employment after the Napoleonic wars. Like other villages of its time the Dufftown streets were laid out in a regular plan. The four main streets converge at the Clock Tower which was completed in 1839.
Clock Tower
Dufftown
Dufftown