Noltland Castle

Noltland Castle, Orkney Islands Photo © S A Mathieson, July 2002

Noltland Castle, Orkney Islands Photo © John Tustin, 10 August 2004

Noltland Castle, Orkney Islands Photo © Dumgoyach, 19 June 2005

Westray is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, with a population of around 550 people. Its main village is Pierowall, with a heritage centre, the ruined Lady Kirk and ferries to Papa Westray.

Geography and geology

With an area of 18.2 square miles, it is the sixth largest of the Orkney Islands. The underlying geology is Rousay type Middle Old Red Sandstone, the flagstones of which make excellent building materials. There is very little peat and the soil is noted for its fertility.

History

At the time of the earliest known settlements, c. 3500 BC, in Westray and neighbouring Papa Westray, it is believed that the two islands were joined. A neolithic and bronze age site at the Links of Noltland is in the care of Historic Scotland. Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland says that "A larger settlement at Noltland on Westray is less well preserved" than the one on neighbouring Papa Westray.

Westray constituted a major family estate during the saga period

And it was at Noltland on Westray too, that one of the most impressive castles in Orkney, and indeed the Northern Isles, was built, Noltland Castle. The castle was commissioned in the 1560s by Gilbert Balfour, who probably played the leading role in the murder of Lord Darnley, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots. Balfour married Margaret Bothwell, the sister of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney who endowed him with Westray, when it was episcopal property. The Castle is situated above the Bay of Pierowall, was built in the 1560s. It is notable for an unusually large spiral staircase, "second only to Fyvie Castle, while its triple tiers of gunloops are without parallel in Scotland, if not Europe". However, Balfour was executed by the Swedes before he could use it.

Other attractions include the Romanesque Cross Kirk and the Castle O'Burrian sea stack once used as a hermitage.

Noup Head Lighthouse was constructed in 1898

--NOLTLAND CASTLE, ORKNEY ISLANDS

Noltland Castle, a ruin near the northern coast of Westray island, Orkney, 20 miles N of Kirkwall. By some conjectured to have been built by Sir Gilbert Balfour, as a refuge for the Earl of Bothwell in the time of Queen Mary, it much more likely was built by the governor, bishop, or princely prelate Thomas de Tulloch in 1420, towards the close of which century it was besieged by Sir William Sinclair of Warsetter. It was besieged again and captured by Earl Patrick Stewart, and gave refuge to the last surviving officers of the Marquis of Montrose's army, when it became a ruin, periodically illuminated in celebration of the births and marriages of the Balfours. Offering the mingled character of palace and fortress, but seemingly never completed, it now presents the appearance of a huge grey oblong pile, with ranges of embrasures resembling tiers of port-holes, and with attached dismantled masses of masonry. Its open quadrangle is entered by an ornamental arched port; and it includes, on the ground flat, a great hall 62 feet long and 24 wide, overarched with a strong stone roof about 20 feet high.

ORDNANCE GAZETTEER OF SCOTLAND VOLUME V BY FRANCIS H. GROOME, 1885