Dunrobin Castle

Dunrobin Castle stands above the Moray Firth on the east Sutherland coast, the seat of the Earls of Sutherland and chiefs of Clan Sutherland. Its oldest surviving fabric, guarded by an iron yett, dates to around 1401, and the castle likely takes its name from Robert, sixth Earl of Sutherland, who died in 1444. Through the settled seventeenth century a larger house grew around a central courtyard, with further alterations in 1785. Its present appearance, however, belongs to the nineteenth century: between 1835 and 1850 the architect Sir Charles Barry recast the building in Scottish Baronial style for the second Duke of Sutherland, adding conical-roofed towers and chateau-like flourishes that recall French models. The result runs to 189 rooms, the largest house in the northern Highlands, with an entrance tower rising some 135 feet. Below the walls, Barry laid out formal gardens completed around 1848, their parterres arranged to trick the eye into seeming greater. The castle has known soldiers and schoolchildren alike: a fire damaged the interior in 1915, when it served as a naval hospital, and it ran as a boarding school between 1965 and 1972. Since 1973 it has opened to visitors, who can watch seasonal falconry displays in the grounds.