Tulloch Castle, Caisteal Gorach

A folly-ruin in the form of a castle, placed as an eye-catcher on the side of Tulloch Hill above Tulloch Castle. A perfect expression of the mania for ruins which seized so many 18th-century landowners, it is one of the most attractive and has an impeccable pedigree, being designed by the great Scottish architect Robert Adam. Several sketches by him survive, dated 1789 and 1790, and inscribed 'sketch of an old tower for Duncan Davidson Esqr ... .' or the like. These are more elaborate than the folly as built. It is a round tower flanked by angled, ruined walls, as if at an angle of an enclosure. Stunted pine trees, probably planted there deliberately, perch on the lower, which has a round-headed doorway and windows on the ground floor and mock cruciform arrowslits and a worn quatrefoil opening above. The flanking walls are pierced by narrow round-headed embrasures, and part of each wall is thickened, though still solid, to suggest a square tower. Quite a lot of stonework has fallen off. From behind, the structure appears as a screen, the tower being hollow and incomplete at the back. It may have had two wooden fIoors. The design is in Robert Adam's late Picturesque manner, and it made a charming object for Mr Davidson's guests to drive out to view.

Return to Tulloch Castle through the steading, dated 1774 and arranged round a courtyard. The short square tower over the entrance has crowstepped gables and a dovecot on the roof. Tulloch Castle belonged to the Bains from 1542 and later to the Davidsons. It retains its 16th century tower though with later crenellations and windows, but an earlier east wing has been engulfed by 19th- and 20th- century alterations and additions, including an attic storey and a plaster ceiling to the first fIoor hall by Sir Robert Lorimer.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).