Fedderate (or Federate) castle is in Aberdeenshire, not far from the village of New Deer. It stands now amidst good arable land, but in its heyday stood in swamp and could only be approached along a causeway. It was a substantial building in its time, built on the L-plan, with walls up to 8 feet thick. It probably contained 4 floors and an attic, rising to a height of 60 feet. Two high fragments remain of the castle, said to have been blown up either in 1689 after being captured by Williamite troops, or more recently. Fedderate originally belonged to the Crawfords, and later passed to the Irvines of Drum, but the existing building seems to have been built by the Gordons in the 1570s, and had affinities of plan form with Gight and Craig.
