sutherland-1911/02_016

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS, ETC., IN COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. -- xvii

by Bishop Gilbert de Moravia in the early half of the 13th century.
It has suffered at the hands of its friends as well as of its foes, for
the ruins which the Master of Caithness and Mackay of Strathnaver
left smouldering in 1570, and the tempest further wrecked in 1605,
were swept away for the most part in the well-meaning restoration
of 1835-37. An illustration in Cordiner's Ruins, and the pointed
arches rising from clustered columns supporting the tower, show it
to have been a building of the Transitional and First Pointed styles
of Gothic architecture. The ruined church of Durness (No. 153),
dating from 1619, presents no structural features of particular
interest; but the tomb of Donald Makmurchou (No. 154), contained
in a recess on the left of the doorway, bears a quaint inscription
dated 1623, worthy of remembrance. In the churchyard is the grave
of Rob. Donn, a notable Gaelic poet. He is known as the Burns of
the North, and died in 1777.

CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC STRUCTURES.

Few castellated buildings of any note remain in the county, and
of these none showing characteristics belonging to an earlier date
than the 16th century. Of these, Dunrobin Castle (No. 269) is pre-
eminently the most important. Its keep, now entirely enclosed
within a pile of 17th century and later building, occupies the site,
and probably incorporates the remains of a much earlier structure.
The continuous mouldings in place of corbelling beneath the parapet
and the angle bartisans are features of a late date. Attention may
be drawn to its fine iron "yett" with a wicket-gate through it, now
removed from the doorway but preserved against an adjoining wall.
All that remains of the Bishop's Palace at Dornoch (No. 104) is a
fragment which, after passing through various vicissitudes, is now in-
corporated in a dwelling-house. It belongs to the end of the 16th
century. These are the only two castellated buildings now capable
of habitation. The ruined Castle of Helmsdale (No. 306), beautifully
situated above the high bank of the Helmsdale river overlooking the
town, is said to have been reconstructed in 1616 from an older
edifice. Its chief claim to interest lies, not in its architecture, but in
the grim tragedy enacted here in 1567, previous to the reconstruction,
when, at the instigation of the Earl of Caithness, John, the 11th
Earl of Sutherland, and his Countess were poisoned at supper by the
Earl's aunt, Isobel Sinclair, in order to divert the succession of the
title to her own son. Her plan, however, miscarried, for while the
heir to the Sutherland title escaped, her son accidentally drank of
the poison and perished along with the Earl and Countess.* The
ruins of Skelbo Castle (No. 105) are now unimportant. Inver-
shin or Duffus (No. 100), and Proncy (No. 152), are reduced to
foundations. The mounds the two latter have occupied, more or less
artificially constructed, and each protected by an encircling moat,
suggest an early date for their original erection. Castle Varrich or
Bhurraich (No. 526), such a conspicuous object at the head of the
Kyle of Tongue, though it has had attributed to it a great antiquity,
presents no features suggestive of an earlier date for the existing
structure than the 16th century. Ardvreck Castle (No. 2), a ruin on

* Gordon's Earldom of Sutherland, p. 146.

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