Castle Girnigoe

This imposing ruined castle, once the seat of the Sinciair Earls of Caithness, is set on a precipitous promontory, one side facing out to sea, the other looking over a narrow sea inlet (a 'geo' or 'goe'), and it is defended by two rock-cut ditches with an outer ward between them. Within the inner ditch stands the tall tower built in the late 15th century by William, Earl of Caithness, and behind it are lower buildings occupying all the available space. In 1607 a whole new structure was built in the outer ward, a fortification of some architectural pretension judging by the finely carved corbels which once supported angle turrets and windows. Sometimes known as Castle Sinciair, this building was an addition to the earlier castle, not a replacement. It is possible that it is built over, or incorporates, an earlier gatehouse. It is now very ruinous save for one fragment standing threestoreys high. The castle was besieged and captured in 1690 in the course of an inheritance dispute and never occupied again.

Both ditches must have been crossed by some sort of removeable wooden bridge. A vaulted passage with portcullis slot leads through the buildings in the outer court to the second ditch; this slopes down to the sea at a dangerous angle and is best approached, not from the outer court, but through the small postern gate in the south wall. The original access to the tower was by a wooden bridge to a door on the ground floor, but present entry is by a breach in the wall of a vaulted basement store or dungeon, from which a straight flight of stairs leads up.

The main tower is an irregular L-plan block with an extra stair tower. It is built of thin grey Caithness flagstone with imported red sandstone dressings for the window frames and the corners. On the ground floor is a dog-leg entrance passage with two guard rooms beside it, one with a small fireplace and a stone seat. There is a kitchen in the wing behind with wall cupboards and a large fireplace, with a seat in it, filling one wall. Below the central guard chamber is another basement, perhaps once the well room, reached by a stair in the wall. All these rooms are vaulted. Food from the kitchen had to be carried across the open court to reach the stairs to the great hall. This was on the first floor, and had a fine oriel window looking west and a private room in the wing behind. In the floor of this room was a trapdoor to a hidden room above the kitchen, with a window looking out to sea. Above were bedrooms and then attics, their wooden floors and the roof long vanished.

Considerable attention was given to defence, and the wall above the sea inlet had a regular row of gun-loops. Projecting from the seaward face of the castle are a line of stone corbels that held a covered wooden balcony from which defenders could rain down missiles on anyone below (or haul up the furniture: lords often carried their furniture from castle to castle, and it might not go up spiral stairs). Traces of a similar balcony exist higher up on the south face above the geo. Beyond the tower a passage leads down the narrow promontory between ruined buildings, in two of which one comes suddenly on steep stairs or shafts giving access to the sea, one halfway along and one at the far end.

The castle and the cliffs are dangerous and unsuitable for children.

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

ND 378 549 The 2006 season (March - August) at Castle Sinclair Girnigoe completed the archaeological excavation of the W Range and courtyard, carried out in two phases between March and August. A programme of public archaeology involved further excavation in the area of the W Barbican. Work continued in the W Range, and saw the complete excavation of rubble deposits from the room previously identified as the Porter's Lodge (DES 2005). The Outer Bailey courtyard was fully excavated, and the natural bedrock surface exposed. The slate bedrock naturally breaks down into gravel after continued exposure, which is likely to have provided the original ground surface. Work in the Courtyard provided new information on structural arrangements around the N and W Ranges. Evidence for pad stones provided further indication of the presence of timber posts, which would have supported a first floor gallery, accessed via a stone staircase which has now been fully exposed in the northern corner of the courtyard.

The excavation of a larger area over the W Barbican by volunteers exposed a sequence of stone-built features. A dry stone boundary wall of post-medieval date was encountered, running around the external edge of the dry moat. This overlay a stone slab pathway, which sloped into the dry moat itself; this feature has also been assigned a post-medieval date, and may have been installed by fishermen to provide access to the shore. This path had cut into a stone wall, running roughly N-S, which has been interpreted as structural evidence relating to the W Barbican. Associated occupation deposits abutting the wall were defined but not excavated.

Excavations at Castle Sinclair Girnigoe have produced a large quantity of architectural stone, primarily red sandstone detail from oriel windows, which has now been recorded.

Post-excavation work is ongoing, and a report is to be lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: Clan Sinclair Trust.

Archaeology Specialists Ltd 2006

ND 3779 5490 Excavation of the North Range of the Outer Bailey courtyard was completed in March 2007. Previously identified as a West Tower and Central Range, the structure was found to comprise a single, two-storey building with three rooms at ground level. These were served by a series of garderobes, which issued directly into the sea to the N, and fireplaces. The ground floor of the North Range is now thought to represent a

service area. A staircase was identified in the northern corner of the courtyard, which would have provided access to the first floor of the North Range.

During August and September of 2007, an archaeological excavation and watching brief were carried out before and during, the construction of a new path and bridge to provide pedestrian access into the castle. The work encountered a number of stonebuilt structures associated with the West Barbican and West

Gatehouse of the castle. In the area of the West Barbican, a paved surface (F11) and overlying wall (F7), initially identified during evaluation, were further exposed, revealing the eroded, NE extent of these features where they had collapsed into the dry moat. Although this surface is known to be later than the original West Barbican building, it could relate to the latest phase of use of the castle, representing part of a formal path leading from

the West Barbican area, down into the dry moat to the South Barbican area.

At the eastern end of the new access path, a substantial area of cobbled surface (F120) was encountered, forming part of a metalled road aligned NEE/SWW. This might have been the original access road to the castle, although no secure dating evidence was recovered. A further slabbed surface (F121) was also encountered, running roughly parallel to the slope of the moat. This feature would appear to represent the continuation of F11, indicating that the slab path also continued to the SE, possibly joining the metalled road represented by F120.

Next to the West Gatehouse, a small length of wall was encountered, representing the lower courses of the SE wall of the gatehouse passage, which would originally have projected into the moat. This would suggest that the front (W) elevation of the gatehouse projected further into the moat than the surviving fabric would suggest.

Post-excavation work is ongoing, and a report is to be deposited with RCAHMS.

Funder: Clan Sinclair Trust.

ND 3779 5490 The fieldwork undertaken in June–July

2010 saw continued excavation around the S entrance and

revealed the continuation of features encountered in 2009

(DES 2009, 116–117). The excavation of the area immediately

within the S entrance allowed the definition of middens

relating to the occupation of the castle by Commonwealth

troops. The middens partially overlay a slate floor and these

deposits were left in situ. Rubble collapse deposits overlay

this horizon. Fragments of stone, window glass and lead

cames were recovered from the collapse deposits.

Report: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Clan Sinclair Trust

A Tale of Two Castles?

Despite the reference to two Castles at the site in much of the 19th and 20th literature, this is in fact one castle site, albeit one with a complex history [Canmore reflects this historic inaccuracy]. Attempts by the family to have it renamed Castle Sinclair in the early 17th century led to a tendency from at least 1701 to call the later elements of the castle Sinclair while the earlier elements retained the earlier name Girnigoe. The modern name of the site combines these elements, reflecting the coherence of the site as a single complex.

Approaching the castle from the land, the visitor first crosses a dry ditch that exploits a natural gully to create a formidable barrier. A large western gatehouse protected the principal entrance, giving way to an outer bailey with ranges along its SW, NW and SE sides. To the NE a second dry ditch impeded access to the remainder of the site, dominated by a tower house. Beyond this a narrow inner bailey was lined with structures on its NW and SE sides including, at the NE end, some of the earliest buildings on the site. Much of the site is conceived with defence in mind – the two ditches and their original drawbridges, a portcullis, gun loops and thick curtain walls making it effectively impregnable. That said, there are at least three subsidiary entrances that may have been used to victual the castle from the sea. As with other medieval castles the upper floors of the tower, gatehouse and bailey ranges provided accommodation for the Earl and his guests.

Castle History

The most recent analysis of the castle suggests that it has its origins in the 14th century, although it is perfectly possible that it re-uses an earlier site. In the late 14th or early 15th century the building currently known as the west gatehouse (often called Castle Sinclair) was erected. By the end of the 15th century the curtain wall had been built incorporating gun loops intended for the armament of the period, while a structure had been established on the site of the central tower house. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries the central tower house (known as Castle Girnigoe) was erected in its current form and the western gatehouse was embellished and enlarged – this work coincides with the renaming of the castle and with the date inscribed on a stone recorded in 1720. In the 1650s the castle was occupied by Cromwellian troops, and subsequently repaired, but it was badly damaged by an attack in 1680. By 1700 the building was effectively a ruin, and formed an important node in the development of a Romantic vision of Scotland’s past.

Despite the worst efforts of the unforgiving Caithness weather and stone robbing, the remains of this stronghold of the Earls of Caithness survive in a state where the visitor can still appreciate the architecture, power and status of the Earls of Caithness. Of all the castles in Scotland this unusually named castle demonstrates the skill of the architects and builders in adapting their construction to the constraints of the landscape whilst also making a statement about the power and status of its owners.

Recently the Clan Sinclair Trust have undertaken repairs and archaeological excavation as well as improving access. Despite this great care must at all times be taken when visiting this castle.

Sources:

Close-Brooks, J (1995) The Highlands, Exploring Scotland's Heritage series, ed. by Anna Ritchie. 2nd. Edinburgh. Page(s): 104-105

FAS (2003) Castle Sinclair Girnigoe Conservation Plan Volume 1 – Understanding the Site, Unpublished report for the Clan Sinclair Trust.

MacGibbon and Ross, D and T. (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, 5v. Edinburgh. Page(s): 306-318

Miller, D B. (1978) Historical castles and families of the north. 7. Girnigoe Castle- The first to sixth Earls of Caithness', Caithness Fld Club Bull, vol. 2, 3, 1978, April. Page(s): 83-9

RCAHMS (1911) Third report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Caithness. Edinburgh, No. 497

Allan Kilpatrick - Data and Recording Projects Officer, and George Geddes - Archaeology Project Manager