Rait Castle

Rait Castle, Nairnshire - Photo ©
Jean Aldridge 24 February 2011

Now a ruin, Rait Castle is a rare example of a "hall castle". It has a fascinating and bloody history. Feuded over at various times by the Mackintoshes and the Cummings, it was abandoned in 1442 following a particularly gruesome incident - which also led to the belief that the castle is haunted by the ghost of a girl with no hands.

-- There is no account of the origin of this interesting and almost unique building. It stands on a hillside about three miles south from the town of Nairn, and commands the level and fertile country between it and the Moray Firth. Tradition says that it belonged first to the Raits of that Ilk, and afterwards to the Comyns.

This castle is a simple oblong, 64 feet by 33 feet over the walls, which are 5 feet 6 inches thick, with a round tower, 21 feet in diameter, at the south-west angle only. The only entrance to the castle seems to have been on the first floor near the east end of the south wall. The doorway is still entire, and has portcullis grooves near the outside, with jambs for a wooden door within. The form of the arch is very unusual, and the workmanship is superior to that of ordinary castles. This doorway appears to have led directly into the hall, or there may have been a guard-room screened off at the east end, forming a passage to the hall. The hall is lighted with windows of a form and design very uncommon in Scotland. They are all about 3 feet wide, have pointed arches, and are furnished with mullions and stone seats. The round tower enters off the hall, and contains a private room, which also has a mullioned window. The arch of all the windows has been filled with the simplest kind of tracery, formed by the mullion branching at the impost, with a pointed arch to either side. The ingoing of the windows is roofed over with a depressed arch, having two ribs in the depth. There are no mouldings in the building to give an idea of its date; only plain splays are used. The ruins of a projecting garde-robe, somewhat like that at Tullyallan, remain at the north-west angle.

The ground floor is lighted with several small square windows, varying from 12 inches to 18 inches in width. That nearest the north-east angle is a loop with a pointed arch. There is no fireplace on the ground floor, but the hall has a plain one. The building was no doubt three stories in height, but the walls of the top floor have now been removed. This building possesses several features which recall similar ones at Tullyallan and Morton Castles, which indeed are almost the only other buildings with which it has affinity. The round tower was probably placed at the south-west angle of the building so as to defend the courtyard on this its weakest side. The north-east and north-west angles of the courtyard wall were strengthened with round towers, now in ruins. The pointed, mullioned, and traceried windows are the most striking and exceptional features of the building. They probably indicate a date early in the fifteenth century. The castle is exceptional, and has more affinity with ecclesiastical than civil or military architecture. -- The Castellated And Domestic Architecture Of Scotland, 1887

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