Visit Dunrobin Castle Scotland

Visit Dunrobin Castle on the Best Scottish Tours. Dunrobin is the largest castle in the northern Highlands. Some elements of the castle are thought to date back to the time of William, the 3rd Earl in the 1320s, while a keep was added in 1401. Although some military features are still apparent, such as the fine iron yett, the original defensive nature of the structure has been well masked by later re-modelling in the 1840s and again in 1915. Dunrobin's similarity to a Loire chateau derives from the work of the Gothic Revivalist Sir Charles Barry between 1845 and 1851. At Dunrobin he created a memorable multi-turreted fantasy in the fake baronial style known as Balmorality. Dunrobin Castle was witness to one of the worst misunderstandings in Scottish history. In April 1746 George Mackenzie, the Jacobite 3rd Earl of Cromartie, was led to believe by a messenger that the Hanoverians had been defeated at Culloden. Without waiting to confirm the news, the Earl rounded up his men and siezed Dunrobin Castle in the name of Charles Edward Stewart. As the real news from Culloden filtered north, the Earl found himself surrounded by the Sutherland militia and was eventually captured in the apartment at Dunrobin still known today as the Cromartie Room.

Dunrobin Castle will always be associated with Elizabeth Gordon, the nineteenth century Countess of Sutherland who married the exceptionally wealthy Marquis of Stafford in 1785 and set out to improve her Highland estates. Although the Staffords built 450 miles of new road in Sutherland and encouraged new tenants to bring over 200,000 sheep into the county, they are remembered for the brutal clearances of Strathnaver. Their hated factor Patrick Sellar despised the local Gaelic folk, believing them to be lazy and an obstacle to progress. The Clearances on the Sutherland estates were amongst the most oppressive as a result. Two years after 1814, remembered as The Year of the Burnings, Sellar was in fact tried for murder and fire-raising. Visit Dunrobin Castle on the Best Scottish Tours.

The Highland Clearances were the most rugged and painful of many attempted solutions to the problem of those who maintain a population on marginal and infertile land. In drawing attention away from the mythology or the hard facts of what actually happened, this book offers a balanced analysis of events which created a terrible scar on the Highland and Gaelic imagination, the historical legacy of which still lies unresolved in the twenty-first century. The Highland Clearances.

The economic, religious and cultural transformation of the northern Highlands in the years 1790 to 1850, can be linked directly to the Highland Clearances, wholesale evictions of highland sub-tenants and small farmers by English landlords, who wished to make way for more profitable sheep farming. The low esteem in which English speakers regarded the Gaelic community and its language is evident. Yet, far from fighting change, the clergy stands accused of abetting the landlords by preaching the need for individual repentance and submission, thus securing a population passive towards the changes. Taking evidence from the far north of Sutherland and Ross, the epicentre of the crisis, author David Paton uses unusual and revealing evidence, including Gaelic poetry and descriptions of the emotional effects of a more complex and subtle picture. The form of Presbyterianism that sustained the Gaelic community in the Northern Highlands in the face of attack by an alien culture, simultaneously prevented effective protest and hindered the expression of a sense of injustice. The Clergy and the Clearances: The Church and the Highland Crisis.

The Highland Clearances Trail answers the where, why, what and whens of the Highland Clearances. Taking you around the significant sites of the Highland Clearances this vivid guide gives a scholarly introduction to a tragic moment in Scotland's history. Perthshire, Ross-Shire, Arran, Sutherland and Caithness are among the many areas covered. With full background information supplied, along with maps and illustrations, The Highland Clearances Trail provides an alternative route around the Highlands that will leave the reader with a deeper understanding of this sublime landscape. The Highland Clearances Trail.

In April 1816, Patrick Sellar was brought to trial in Inverness for culpable homicide in the manner of his treatment of the Highlanders of Strathnaver. This is an account of Sellar's life and times. It shows that he was ruthless and cruel, but also that he had a streak of idealism: did he really believe that the displaced Highlanders would be better off, better fed, educated and housed in their new homes? Have the Highlanders in the end become more productive and prosperous? The author examines such questions as these, showing there is a case for Sellar's defence as well as for his prosecution. Patrick Sellar and the Highland Clearances: Homicide, Eviction and the Price of Progress.