Castle of Mey

On the far north Caithness coast stands the Castle of Mey, a Z-plan tower house raised between 1566 and 1572 for George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness, perhaps on the footprint of an earlier fortification. Three storeys tall, it carries a projecting wing to the south-east and a square tower at its north-western angle. As the seat of the Earls of Caithness it was renamed Barrogill Castle, enlarged through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and given Tudor Gothic dress in 1821 by the architect William Burn. The Sinclairs held it until 1889, after which it passed through several hands and, having served as an officers’ rest home during the Second World War, slipped towards dereliction. Its rescue came in 1952, when Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother bought the run-down estate, restored it as a holiday home and restored its original name. She returned each August and October from 1955 until her death in March 2002. The castle is now cared for by a trust, transferred to The Prince’s Foundation in 2019, and opens to visitors through the summer months; a portion of the estate operates as a bed and breakfast. Screen audiences may recognise it from an episode of the Netflix drama The Crown.