Scotland · Still standing
Erchless Castle
Erchless Castle is an L‑plan tower house in the Highland council area of northern Scotland, located near Struy at the point where the Erchless Burn enters the River Beauly. The present main block dates to about 1600 and a Baronial‑style wing was added in 1895; the building is a Category B listed property. It has been the traditional seat of the Chisholm family since the 15th century.
First raised
1600
Its prime
1895
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1895
What Erchless Castle looked like in its prime.
An L‑plan stone tower house with an attached 19th‑century Baronial wing, forming a clear L‑shaped footprint on the riverbank; the original tower block rises as a multi‑storey masonry volume while the later wing extends from one side. The castle sits at the northeast end of Strathglass where the Erchless Burn joins the River Beauly, its massing visible from the water and low approach roads, the exterior finished in traditional stone masonry and roofed in period roofing materials.
Its story
The story of Erchless Castle.
From the Bissetts to the Chisholm Tower House
Erchless stands at the north-east end of Strathglass, where the Erchless Burn enters the River Beauly, itself newly formed from the confluence of the Glass and the Farrar immediately to the south. A building was raised here in the thirteenth century by the Bissetts, and in the fifteenth century the property came to the Chisholms through the marriage of Alexander de Chisholme to Margaret, Lady of Erchless, becoming their ancestral home.
The present house is an L-plan tower dated to about 1600. It was altered in the nineteenth century and given a Baronial-style wing in 1895, and has been protected as a Category B listed building since 1971.
The Sale of the Chisholm Estates, 1937
After the death of the last surviving member of the direct line of Chisholms, the estate was owned by the trustees of the late Lady Chisholm, Annie Cecilia Chisholm of Chisholm. In 1932-33 the estate manager was recorded as William Macintyre, living at the Sawmill Cottage. The Highland News of 17 April 1937 reported that the Chisholm Estates had been sold on 10 April to a buyer it could not name; the purchaser was Highland Estates Ltd. The lands were said to take in Erchless Castle and Forest, with deer in the forests of Affric, Fasnakyle, Cozac and Benula, together with the outlying estates of Buntait, Kerrow and Rheindown.
The Stackelbergs and the Robsons, 1946-1982
In 1946 the Erchless estate and castle were bought on behalf of Baron Siegfried Nikolai von Stackelberg, an anti-communist refugee of the Baltic German nobility, and his wife Baroness Phyllis von Stackelberg. The funds came from the estate of her father George Roscoe, of the firm James Roscoe & Sons, and the property remained in the ownership of the Trustees of George Roscoe until 1963-64. The valuation roll for the following year names the new lairdship of Erchless as held by the family of Sir Lawrence Robson, founder of the accountancy firm Robson Rhodes.
The trustees did not part with the whole of the former estate: the Kilmorack valuation roll for 1964-65 records them as still holding Teanassie House and most of Breakachy. The baron and baroness had moved into Teanassie House to live in retirement, and their gravestone records his death on 30 September 1966 and hers, as Phyllis Mary Roscoe, on 21 March 1982. On the death of Sir Lawrence Robson in 1982 the castle was inherited by his son, Erik Maurice William Robson.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1895.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Erchless Castle, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Erchless Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1895, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Defend this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Erchless Castle.
The families that held Erchless Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Chisholm
Traditional seat of the Chisholms from the 15th century until the estates were sold in 1937.
From the archive
Erchless Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
Fig. 629. — Erchless Castle. View from the South. West.
1887 · MacGibbon & Ross, vol. 2 (1887)
Public domain
