Bog o' Gight (2)
In the 1720s, Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon commenced the first wave of enlargement work, that ultimately turned the old castle into the gigantic mansion that it became.  He also drained the bog!  By the time the 4th Duke died in 1827, the façade of the building was 568 feet in width!

The families that lived here are actually more interesting than the remains of their castle.  The line of the Dukes of Gordon became extinct in 1836, on the death of the 5th dook.  The 4th Dook (who had at his own expense, raised the Gordon Highlanders) had a daughter, Lady Charlotte Gordon, who married Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond.  (Charlotte Gordon is chiefly remembered as the hostess of the Duchess of Richmond's Ball - &quot;the most famous ball in history&quot;, held on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo and attended by many of the officers that fought there.)  While the dukedom could not be passed to Lady Charlotte, the vast property of her nephew, the 5th Duke, could be and was - which is how Gordon Castle passed to the Lennox family, on condition that they changed their surname to Gordon-Lennox - which they did.

The Lennox family stem from an illegitimate son of King Charles II, by his Fench misstress Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille.  

<i>(Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.canmore.org.uk" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.canmore.org.uk</a> )</i>
scotland 2022 castle gordoncastle bogofgight dukesofgordon fochabers bogygeich gordonlennox dukesofrichmond