Dunrobin Castle

Dunrobin Castle

A fairytale château in the far north

Of all Scotland's castles, Dunrobin looks the least like a rugged Highland fortress and the most like a French fairy tale. Rising above formal gardens beside the sea near the village of Golspie, in the far northern region of Sutherland, it bristles with pointed turrets and cone-shaped roofs. With around 189 rooms, it is the largest house in the northern Highlands, and the grand seat of the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland.

Centuries of the Sutherland family

A castle has stood at Dunrobin since the Middle Ages — the oldest parts date from around the fourteenth century — and it has been the home of the Sutherland family for some seven hundred years. The plain old castle, however, looked nothing like the palace we see today. Its fairytale appearance is much more recent.

The great rebuilding

In the 1840s the castle was completely transformed by the famous architect Sir Charles Barry, the very same designer who created the Houses of Parliament in London. Barry wrapped the old castle in a grand new building of turrets and towers, inspired by the great châteaux of France, turning Dunrobin into one of the most spectacular homes in the country. At the same time, beautiful formal gardens were laid out below the castle, looking out over the sea — gardens said to have been modelled on those of the palace of Versailles.

A difficult history

Like many great families, the Sutherlands were enormously powerful landowners, and their story is not only a happy one. During the nineteenth century, in a sad period known as the Highland Clearances, many ordinary families across the north of Scotland were forced to leave the land where they had lived for generations, often to make way for sheep farming. The dukes of Sutherland were among the landowners involved, and this remains a painful chapter in the history of the Highlands. A grand castle, it is worth remembering, was sometimes built in times that were very hard for the people who lived nearby.

Gardens, falcons and a railway

Today Dunrobin is famous for its gardens and for its lively falconry displays, where eagles and falcons swoop above the lawns. The castle even has its own private railway station, built so that its noble owners and their guests could arrive in style. Inside are splendid rooms full of paintings, furniture and treasures gathered over the centuries.

Visiting today

A visit to Dunrobin is a chance to wander through a real-life fairytale castle, stroll its sea-facing gardens, and watch birds of prey soar overhead, all in the wild and beautiful far north of Scotland. With its glittering turrets reflected in the formal pools below, Dunrobin is a reminder of just how grand — and how complicated — the story of a great Scottish family can be.