This is one of the oldest keeps in Scotland, from the Norse, about 12th century.
There are living quarters for a family there.
Wick (Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Ùige) is an estuary town and a royal burgh
in the north of the Highland council area of Scotland. Historically, it is one
of two burghs within the county of Caithness, of which Wick was the county town.
The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay.
The Castle of Old Wick, known also as the Old Man of Wick was built in the 12th century when the Norwegian earldom of Orkney included Caithness, and was united under Harald Maddadsson. The castle is thought to have been his stronghold on the mainland of Britain. There is evidence that the site was occupied before the present castle was built.
All that remains today is a tall tower sitting on the very edge of the cliffs, about half a mile south of Wick Bay and of the modern town of Wick, but originally the castle had at least 4 stories as well as extra buildings containing workshops and other quarters.
During the 14th century it was owned by Sir Reginald de Cheyne who was a supporter of Edward I during his attempt to establish John Balliol as King of Scotland, although there is no evidence of a battle having taken place there. It was abandoned in the 18th century. The castle was built to the same plan as Brough Castle, which is about 29 kilometres to the north/northwest, on the Pentland Firth coast of Caithness.
--THE OLD MAN OF WICK, CAITHNESS-SHIRE.
The ruins of this once extensive castle stand on a narrow promontory on the rugged east coast of Caithness-shire, about one and a half miles south of the town of Wick. The situation and plan of the castle are very similar to those of Girnigoe, but the buildings are now chiefly reduced to mere grass-grown mounds. The site consists of one of those narrow spits of rock jutting out with perpendicular faces into the sea, which rushes with great force up the "goes" or deep channels on each side of it. The keep a rectangular mass of rude masonry occupies the neck of the promontory, which is cut across by a wide ditch. It still stands three stories in height, but there was probably another story above. The arrangement seems to have been the usual one in castles of the Second Period. The basement formed the stores, with only narrow loops; the first floor contained the hall, with the entrance door at the south-east angle, where the bar-hole still remains; the windows are very small and narrow; the upper floors would contain the lord's private apartments. The floors are about 9 feet in height, and the joists rested on ledges all round, formed by the thinning of the wall as it ascended. Beyond the keep a long narrow passage or court passed along the centre of the peninsula, with buildings on each side of it, of which only the foundations can now be traced. These were doubtless similar to the structures arranged in the same way at Girnigoe.
In the fourteenth century this keep was occupied by Sir Reginald de Cheyne,
descendant of one of the Norman families who held large estates in the North.
The Earl of Sutherland succeeded to the estate by marriage with the heiress
of Sir Reginald ; and it was held in later times by the Oliphants, Lord Duffus,
and Dunbar of Hempriggs ; but there is no record of the erection of the various
structures of which it was once composed. The Old Man of Wick is very simple
and rude, and is probably the oldest of all the existing castles of Caithness.
THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND BY DAVID MACGIBBON AND
THOMAS ROSS, 1889--