After more than 450 years overlooking Scotland's River Dee, Abergeldie Castle is on the verge of being washed away by it. Floodwaters have eaten away the riverbank in recent days and the 16th-century castle is now teetering on the edge, Discovery reports. John Gordon, the Baron of Abergeldie, was forced to flee his ancestral home over the weekend after the river burst its banks and took with it nearly 60 feet of land, leaving the castle just a few feet from the new riverbank, reports the Telegraph. The castle was built around 1550 in Aberdeenshire (per local lore, its dungeon was once occupied by an accused witch) and neighbors the Queen's Balmoral residence.
Floods caused by severe weather took many people in the region—including the 76-year-old baron—by surprise. "When the waters came up he had to get out quickly," a neighbor tells the Press and Journal. "The castle is teetering on the brink. God knows what will happen if the Dee rises any further," the neighbor says. "The castle is in imminent danger and John is at his wits' end. It’s not only a home. It’s the heritage, the history." The baron has moved to another house on his estate while he waits to see what happens to the castle, which was left "overhanging a 12-foot drop" as the riverbank continued to erode on Monday, reports the Telegraph. (This potato billionaire's hilltop mansion will soon be gone.)
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