Castle Sinclair Girnigoe

Castle Girnigoe was built by William Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Caithness, probably some time between 1476 and 1496, and certainly before his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. It rose on a rocky promontory jutting into Sinclair Bay, about three miles north of Wick on the east coast of Caithness, and there is some evidence that it stood on the foundations of an earlier fortalice. It is considered one of the earliest seats of Clan Sinclair — a five-storey L-plan crow-stepped tower house, with a secret chamber hidden in the vaulted ceiling of the kitchen.

Girnigoe's darkest episode was inflicted by its own family. In 1577 George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness, imprisoned his own son, John Sinclair, Master of Caithness, in the castle on suspicion of rebelling against his rule. He was held for seven years, after which his father fed him a diet of salted beef with nothing to drink, until he died insane from thirst. A few years earlier, in May 1573, Olave Sinclair, the foud of Shetland, had been brought to Girnigoe, paralysed after a stroke. In December 1594 the rebel Earl of Bothwell was at Girnigoe.

In 1606 the fortress was expanded with a gatehouse, other buildings and a curtain wall — a new work known as Castle Sinclair, connected to the older castle by a drawbridge over a ravine. That same year George Sinclair, 5th Earl of Caithness, asked the Scottish Parliament to change the name to Castle Sinclair; but both Castle Sinclair and Castle Girnigoe were still being written down in 1700, and both names have been in use ever since.

In 1672 George Sinclair, 6th Earl of Caithness, heavily in debt to his fourth cousin John Campbell of Glenorchy, transferred the castle to Campbell as payment. When Sinclair died four years later without an heir, Campbell claimed the title Earl of Caithness and married Sinclair's widow. But Sinclair's first cousin, George Sinclair of Keiss, challenged Campbell's title, and the dispute came to battle at Altimarlach in 1680, where Campbell defeated Sinclair. Glenorchy kept some of his troops in Caithness, levying rents and taxes on the people and subjecting them to grievous oppression.

Sinclair of Keiss fought on. He laid siege to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe with firearms and artillery and took it after feeble resistance from the garrison — for which he and the three friends who had assisted him, Sinclair of Broynach, Sinclair of Thura and Mackay of Strathnaver, were declared rebels. The political current turned in his favour and the declaration was quashed; having failed to regain his inheritance by force, he turned to the law. Through the influence of the Duke of York, afterwards James II, he took his place as 7th Earl of Caithness on 15 July 1681, and his lands were restored on 23 September. Campbell of Glenorchy was made Earl of Breadalbane by way of compensation.

The ruins of the two castles have been protected as a scheduled monument since 1935. Since 1998 the Clan Sinclair Trust has carried out archaeological research at the site and worked to preserve it, and it is the only castle in Scotland listed by the World Monuments Fund.