Archaeology Notes

Event ID 655715

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/655715

ND35SE 48 3781 5491

See also ND35SE 15.

Castle Sinclair, successor to Castle Girnigoe (ND35SE 15) and erected in its outer ward in 1606. Reflecting the changing taste of its period, it was a building of some architectural pretension, three storeys high in part, with apartments forming a N range and offices along the S curtain. The castle belonged to the Sinclair Earls of Caithness, and it was a dispute about succession which led to the attack in 1679 which so damaged the castle that it was abandoned

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; RCAHMS 1911; N Tranter 1962-70.

Of Castle Sinclair, one fragment stands to roof height but the other walls have a maximum height of 5m and some are turfed-over foundations, 0.4m high. The outer walls are generally 1.5m thick, but some to the SW reach 3m in thickness.

Visited by OS, 21 April 1963.

Castle Sinclair

(remains of) [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, November 2010.