Scotland · Still standing
Tulloch Castle
Tulloch Castle is a historic stone castle in Dingwall, Highlands of Scotland, long associated with the Bain/Bayne and Davidson families and now used as a hotel and conference centre. The building preserves a mix of medieval origins with later 19th- and early 20th-century extensions and alterations. The grounds contain a small family cemetery, historic walled gardens, and a tunnel said to run from the castle basement under the town.
Its prime
1925
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1925
What Tulloch Castle looked like in its prime.
Low, sprawling pale-grey stone building with a short, round crenellated drum tower on the left bearing a flag, a crenellated parapet along a lower wing, and a higher central block with steep slate roofs and triangular dormer windows. Rectangular sash windows punctuate smooth ashlar walls. The castle sits behind a clipped hedge and broad lawn with mature trees around it; an arched garden tunnel/drive entrance is visible at lawn edge.
Its story
The story of Tulloch Castle.
Mariota Leslie and the house of Ross
The tower house stands in the town of Dingwall and dates at least to the late fourteenth century, when it was the birthplace of Mariota Leslie, daughter of Euphemia I, Countess of Ross. Mariota married Donald Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, and several of Euphemia's children by Walter Leslie were likewise born at Tulloch.
The Bains of Tulloch, 1542–1762
Duncan Bane — the name also written Bain and Bayne — was granted a charter of the lands in 1542. In 1678 King Charles II erected the lands of Tulloch into a free barony in favour of Sir Donald Bain of Tulloch. The line held Tulloch until Kenneth Bayne, 8th laird and 5th baron, sold the estate in 1762 to his cousin Henry Davidson, whose possession was confirmed by a Crown charter of King George III dated 23 February 1763.
The Davidsons of Tulloch, 1762–1917
Henry Davidson died in 1781 and Tulloch went to his younger brother Duncan, MP for Cromartyshire from 1790 to 1796, then in turn to his son Henry (1771–1827), his grandson Duncan (1800–1881) and his great-grandson Duncan Henry Caithness Reay Davidson (1836–1889), father of the last Davidson of Tulloch, Duncan (1865–1917). Fire damaged the castle in 1845 and it was extended in 1891.
On the hill north of the castle stands Caisteal Gorach, a late eighteenth-century folly of a ruined round tower and flanking walls designed by Robert Adam for Duncan Davidson of Tulloch. A tunnel ran from the castle basement under the town of Dingwall to the old site of Dingwall Castle; it has since collapsed. A Davidson burial ground for family members and pets survives in the grounds, fenced and overgrown, with some headstones still visible.
Vickers, Dunkirk and the hostel years
Tulloch passed out of Davidson hands in 1917, when Duncan Davidson, 11th baron of Tulloch, died and left castle and barony to his daughter and her son, Colonel Angus Vickers of the Vickers aircraft company. Sir Robert Lorimer designed alterations in the early 1920s. After some years as the Vickers family home, the castle served in 1940 as a hospital for casualties of the Dunkirk evacuation, and in 1957 it was bought by the local education authority, which ran it until 1976 as a hostel for west-coast pupils attending Dingwall Academy.
The castle then fell into disrepair until a local family, the MacAulays, renovated it and converted it into a hotel in 1996; it hosted the official Clan Davidson Gathering in October 2007. The barony travelled separately: when Colonel Angus Vickers, 13th baron, died in 1990 his niece Lady Phyllis Vickers took it by disposition, and in 2016 Sir Francis Henry Mackay of Tulloch transferred it by deed of disposition to Dr David Willien. The castle is said to be haunted by a green lady, a tradition examined by the Grampian Television series Beyond Explanation in 2005.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1925.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Tulloch Castle, including 2 interiors: basement tunnel passage, main interior stair and landing. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Tulloch Castle.
The families that held Tulloch Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Bain
The Bains of Tulloch held the estate from a 1542 charter until sold in 1762.
Held by the Davidsons of Tulloch, 1762–1917.
Vickers
Family home of the Vickers, barons of Tulloch, from 1917 until sold to the local education authority in 1957.
