Rothes (; ) is a town in Moray, Scotland, on the banks of the River Spey, south of Elgin. The town had a population of 1,252 at the 2011 Census. A settlement has been here since AD 600. History and castle At the south end of the village lie the remains of Rothes Castle built on a hill by Peter de Pollok about 1200 to command traffic up and down this stretch of Strathspey. The castle's remains consist of a fragment of the massive outer wall overlooking the High Street of Rothes town. The castle was four storeys high, with a portcullis guarding the entrance to the inner courtyard and a drawbridge that crossed the dry moat, which ran between the outer wall and the hill on which the castle stood. Sir Norman Leslie, the castle's owner, was host to King Edward I of England on 29 July 1296. In the 1390s Rothes Castle and its lands were passed to the Leslie family, who would later become the Earls of Rothes. Some of the earliest houses in Rothes were built from stones of the castle, which were taken by villagers to build dwellings after the castle was set alight and destroyed in 1662. The town can clearly be seen on maps even before this date. John Grant of Easter Elchies acquired the estate from John Hamilton-Leslie, 9th Earl of Rothes in 1711. John Grant of Easter Elchies sold his estate to James Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Findlater and 2nd Earl of Seafield shortly thereafter. An official notice by James Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Findlater and 2nd Earl of Seafield, of intention to feu a town on the Mains of Rothes was placed on 12 December 1763 to the Elginshire Council, and in 1766 the Seafields laid out plans for a crofting township to align north-south along the valley. This forms the genesis of most of the road patterns in Rothes today. The planned town formed a cross to replicate the Saltire in honour of St. Andrew. It overlay its old unplanned predecessor, which can still be seen on the ground. A formal let of 23 tenements by the earl were placed on 1 March 1790. Economy Rothes is home to four distilleries—Speyburn-Glenlivet Distillery, Glen Grant Distillery, Glen Spey Distillery and Glenrothes Distillery. Caperdonich distillery was the fifth in the town but was mothballed in 2002 and demolished in 2010. Rothes's