Historic Buildings of Ross & Cromarty

Historic County of Scotland

Now part of Highland

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Image right - Eilean Donan Castle

If you have information about any of the Buildings mentioned below please share it here. If you have ancestors linked to any of the places please add them to the project.

The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Ross & Cromarty, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project and/or to individual projects where they have been set up.

Historic Buildings of Ross & Cromarty

... in alphabetical order

❊ Indicates an available image in Gallery attached to the project

Including Castles, Abbeys, Manor Houses, Mansions, Stately Homes, Country houses, Estate houses, Courts, Halls, Parks and other listed buildings of historic interest

A

• Achnacloich Castle
• Arkendeith

B

• Balconie Castle
• Balloan Castle
• Ballone Castle
• Balnagown Castle
• Brahan Castle

C

• Cadboll Castle
• Caisteal Mhic Cneacail
• Castle Leod
• Cnoc A Chaisteil
• Contullich Castle
• Craig Castle
• Cromarty Castle

D

• Dingwall Castle
• Dochmaluag House
• Dun Lagaidh
• Dunskeath Castle

E

• Edderton Castle
• Eilean Donan Castle ❊ - during the reign of Alexander II (ruled 1214–1249), a large curtain-wall castle was constructed that enclosed much of the island of Eilan Donan by the Chief of the Mathiesons. Later the island became a stronghold of the Mackenzies of Kintail. The castle is said to have been garrisoned by Macraes and Maclennans, both clans that were later closely associated with the Mackenzies. Traditional Mackenzie clan histories relate that Earl William sought advantage from the Treaty of Perth of 1266, by which King Magnus VI of Norway ceded the Hebrides to Scotland, and demanded that his kinsman Kenneth Mackenzie return the castle to allow his expansion into the islands; Mackenzie refused, and Earl William led an assault against Eilean Donan that the Mackenzies and their allies repulsed. The Mackenzie clan histories also claim (with little or no supporting evidence), that Robert the Bruce sheltered at Eilean Donan during the winter of 1306 to 1307; the castle escaped any other involvement in the Wars of Scottish Independence. In 1331 Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, sent an officer to Eilean Donan to warn the occupants of his forthcoming visit. In preparation 50 wrongdoers were rounded up and executed, their heads being displayed on the castle walls to Moray's approval. By the middle of the 14th century the Mackenzies are said to have been on the losing side in the ongoing feuding with the Earls of Ross; Earl Uilleam III granted Kintail to Raghnall mac Ruaidhri, Lord of Garmoran in 1342. With the assistance of Leod Macgilleandrais, the Earl allegedly apprehended Kenneth Mackenzie, 3rd of Kintail, and had him executed in 1346 at Inverness. Through this period Eilean Donan is said to have been held by Duncan Macaulay for the Mackenzies, against the Earl and his allies. Kenneth's young son Murdo Mackenzie supposedly evaded the Earl's attempts to eliminate him, and on the return of David II from exile Murdo Mackenzie was allegedly confirmed in the lands of Kintail and Eilean Donan by a charter of 1362 (of which, however, no trace survives to the present day). At some point in the earlier 14th century it is thought that the Clan Macrae began to settle in Kintail as a body, having migrated from the Beauly Firth, and there gained the trust of the Mackenzie lairds through possible kinship and an advantageous marriage. The Macraes began to act as Mackenzie's bodyguards, acquiring the soubriquet "Mackenzie's shirt of mail". From the late 13th century, the Mackenzies held Eilean Donan as hereditary constables of the Earls of Ross, but by the mid-14th century they had lost control of the castle. Expanding east and westwards over the next two centuries, they re-acquired Eilean Donan in their own right in the later 15th century, receiving a charter for the castle and lands of Kintail in 1509. The castle is strongly associated with their devoted allies, the Macraes - 'Mackenzie's shirt of mail' - who populated this region from the mid-14th century and became hereditary constables under the Mackenzie Earls of Seaforth. The involvement of Eilean Donan in a Jacobite plot of 1719, and its disastrous finale at the Battle of Glenshiel, spelt its downfall. While harbouring a small Spanish garrison, the already damaged castle was bombarded to smithereens by Hanoverian frigates, and remained an uninhabitable ruin until the 20th century.

F

• Fairburn Tower
• Foulis Castle

G

• Geanies Castle

I

• Inverbreakie Castle

K

• Keane Castle
• Kilcoy Castle
• Kinbeachie Castle
• Kinkell Castle

L

• Lady’s Well
• Little Tarrel Castle
• Lochslin Castle

M

• Milntown Castle

N

• Newmore Castle

O

• Ormond Castle

R

• Red Castle
• Redcastle

S

• Seaforth Castle
• Shandwick Castle
• Stornoway Castle
• Strome Castle

T

• Tain Castle
• Tarradale Castle
• Teaninich Castle
• Tulloch Castle

References and Sources

Ross & Cromarty Specific

General

• http://www.stravaiging.com/history/castles/county/#sthash.F9HoCVJV....
• http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/index.php/Main/HomePage
• http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk
• http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/
• http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
• http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_houses_in_the_United_K...
• http://www.britainsfinest.co.uk/historichouses/
• http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_to_go_in_Britain/historic_house...
• http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/
• Historic Houses Association - represents 1,500 houses in the UK
• Hudson's Historic Houses and Gardens - UK - guidebook of over 2,000 houses open to the public
• The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses - database of over 7,000 houses
• Lost Heritage - A Memorial to the Lost Country Houses of England - list of over 1,700 houses
• National Trust for Historic Preservation - online database of historic houses in the United State
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Houses_Association - http://www.hha.org.uk/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Houses_of_England

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