Bucholie Castle, Highland
Photo © Richard Paxman, 11 July 2007
Bucholie Castle, Highland
Photo © Richard Paxman,
11 July 2007
Bucholie Castle is one of the most stunningly positioned castles in Britain. Access to the gate tower requires crossing a narrow neck of land a metre wide, with sheer drops to the sea on either side.
BUCHOLIE CASTLE, CAITHNESS-SHIRE.
This, like so many of the Caithness castles, is built on a peninsular rock, jutting into and nearly surrounded by the sea. It is situated a short way south of Freswick Bay, and within a few miles of John o' Groat's House. The detached mass of rock on which the castle is built, with perpendicular sides about 100 feet high, is connected with the land only by a narrow neck at the north-west angle, the level of which at the entrance gate is 9 feet below the level of the threshold. The door could therefore only be reached by a moveable wooden bridge from a higher strip of ground a little distance off. The entrance to the castle from this gateway was partly under the keep, beyond which it passed through a very long and narrow passage between two high walls, from which it was completely commanded. At the inner end of this passage there occurs an archway with a second gate, so that assailants penetrating through the first or outer gate would be stopped by the inner one, and being caught in the narrow passage would be easily disposed of from the battlements on each side, or from apertures in the first floor of the keep. The keep stood, as usual, close to the isthmus which joined the castle to the mainland, but little more than part of the west wall now exists. The walls are built with an external slope, an un-common arrangement in Caithness castles and above the second story are seen the remains of a projecting battlement.
The passage above referred to gives access to the courtyard, which is of the usual long narrow shape of the Caithness castles, and had buildings on each side of it; but they are now so ruinous that it is impossible to say how they were used. Traces may be observed of an outside stair to an upper floor.
This castle is said to have been held by Sweyn about 1170. Certainly the position is one which would be naturally taken possession of from an early period as a site for a fortress. About 1300 it was possessed by the family of Mowat.
This once extensive fortress stood on a lofty detached rock, entirely surrounded by the sea, except where a narrow isthmus joins it to the mainland. It is situated on the north coast of Banffshire, about three miles east of Cullen.
On the mainland the approach to the castle is defended by an intrenched area, having a ditch and rampart, 240 feet by 140 feet. The isthmus forming the access is cut across by two ditches, which no doubt were provided with drawbridges. Beyond this the ruins of the castle indicate several towers which command the approach. The area of the rock is about 180 feet by 80 feet, and has been surrounded by buildings, of which only the vaulted basement on the west side now remains. This part of the structure has been built up from a lower part of the rock to the level of the courtyard, and beneath this vault there is a still deeper chamber, partly hewn out of the rock. The castle seems to have been on the same model as Girnigoe and the other coast fortresses of Caithness. It belonged to the St. Clairs, afterwards to the Ogilvies, Earls of Findlater, and is now the property of the Earl of Seafield.