Redcastle (Scottish Gaelic : an Caisteal ruadh), historically known as Edirdovar and Ederdour, is a medieval castle in Killearnan on the Black Isle, northern Scotland. It is so named from the colour of the stone of which it is built. The castle is now in a state of ruinous disrepair, although it is protected as a category B listed building. [1]
The structure has an L-shaped floor plan and is approximately three stories. It does not have a roof at this time.
Redcastle was until relatively recently one of the oldest inhabited houses in Scotland. [2] A castle on this site was first constructed by William the Lion in 1179 and was known as Edirdovar. [3] The castle was held by Sir John Bysset 1230 and in 1278 by Sir Andrew de Besco. In 1455 the Black Isle was annexed to the Crown. [4]
By 1492 the castle and its lands were under the control of Kenneth Mackenzie, 7th of Kintail, and they remained in the possession of Clan Mackenzie until 1790. The present building is dated 1641 but incorporates earlier work of rubble and ashlar masonry which is typically associated with older structures. [1] Additionally, the castle was remodelled in the 19th century by William Burn. [1] The estate was bought by Colonel H.D. Baillie in 1838 and passed into the ownership of the family of Lord Burton of Dochfour. The castle was requisitioned by the army during World War II and was finally vacated and part stripped in the 1950s. [5]
Clan Ross is a Highland Scottish clan. The original chiefs of the clan were the original Earls of Ross.
Cromarty is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, it is 5 miles (8 km) seaward from Invergordon on the opposite coast. In the 2001 census, it had a population of 719.
Cromartyshire is a historic county in the Highlands of Scotland, comprising the medieval "old shire" around the county town of Cromarty and 22 enclaves and exclaves transferred from Ross-shire in the late 17th century. The largest part, six times the size of the old shire, is Coigach, northwest from Ullapool. In 1890, Cromartyshire was merged with Ross-shire into the administrative county of Ross and Cromarty, which in 1975 was merged into the new council area of Highland.
Clan Mackenzie is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.
The Black Isle is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Resolis, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and North Kessock, as well as numerous smaller settlements. About 12,000 people live on the Black Isle, depending on the definition.
Foulis Castle is situated two miles south-west of Evanton in the parish of Kiltearn, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. It is a white washed mansion that incorporates an old tower house with gun loops. The castle was held by the Clan Munro from the twelfth century or earlier and they had a stronghold there.
Ross-shire is a historic county in the Scottish Highlands. The county borders Sutherland to the north and Inverness-shire to the south, as well as having a complex border with Cromartyshire – a county consisting of numerous enclaves or exclaves scattered throughout Ross-shire's territory. Ross-shire includes most of Ross along with Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Dingwall is the traditional county town. The area of Ross-shire is based on that of the historic province of Ross, but with the exclusion of the many enclaves that form Cromartyshire.
Castle Chanonry of Ross, also known as Seaforth Castle, was located in the town of Fortrose, to the north-east of Inverness, on the peninsula known as the Black Isle, Highland, Scotland. Nothing now remains of the castle. The castle was also known as Canonry or Chanonrie of Ross, the former county.
Avoch is a harbour-village located on the south-east coast of the Black Isle, on the Moray Firth.
Beauly Priory was a Valliscaulian monastic community located at "Insula de Achenbady", now Beauly, Inverness-shire. It was probably founded in 1230. It is not known for certain who the founder was, different sources giving Alexander II of Scotland, John Byset, and both. The French monks, along with Bisset, had a strong enough French-speaking presence to give the location and the river the name "beau lieu" and have it pass into English.
Castle Leod is the seat of the Clan Mackenzie. It is a category A listed building, and the grounds are listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes of Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens. It is located near Strathpeffer in the east of Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands.
The Aird is an area of the County of Inverness, to the west of the City of Inverness. It is situated to the south of the River Beauly and the Beauly Firth, and to the north of Glenurquhart and the northern end of Loch Ness.
Kiltearn is a parish in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. It is in the Presbytery of Ross.
Robert Mor Munro, 15th Baron of Foulis, and 18th chief of the Clan Munro was a 16th-century Scottish chief. He was known as Robert Mor on account of his large stature. He was the eldest son of Robert Munro, 14th Baron of Foulis. Although this Robert Munro is traditionally 15th Baron and 18th overall chief of the clan, he is only the 8th Munro chief that can be proved by contemporary evidence.
Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, nicknamed "Cam", was a Highland chief of the Scottish clan Mackenzie who greatly increased his ancestral estates through royal favour and a career of vigorous self-aggrandisement.
Dingwall Castle was a medieval fort and royal castle in the town of Dingwall, eastern Ross-shire, Scotland.
Kilcoy Castle is a 16th-century castle near Muir of Ord and Tore on the Black Isle, in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. Kilcoy Castle is a ‘Z’ plan fortalice dating from no later than 1618 and possibly founded as early as 1580.
Clan Munro is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically the clan was based in Easter Ross in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional origins of the clan give its founder as Donald Munro who came from the north of Ireland and settled in Scotland in the eleventh century, though its true founder may have lived much later. It is also a strong tradition that the Munro chiefs supported Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence. The first proven clan chief on record however is Robert de Munro who died in 1369; his father is mentioned but not named in a number of charters. The clan chiefs originally held land principally at Findon on the Black Isle but exchanged it in 1350 for Estirfowlys. Robert's son Hugh who died in 1425 was the first of the family to be styled "of Foulis", despite which clan genealogies describe him as 9th baron.
Tarbat House is a Category A listed building in the Highland council area of northern Scotland. A three-story stone mansion in the neoclassical style, it was built in 1787 by the Edinburgh architect James McLeran for John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod. The house is located approximately 500m from the village of Milton near Invergordon.
Killearnan is a civil parish in the Black Isle peninsula of Ross and Cromarty in the Highland area of Scotland. It is bordered by the parish of Urquhart and Logie Wester on the north, Urray to the west and Knockbain in the east. It borders the Beauly Firth on the south and its church lies on the banks of that firth. The coastline is 5 miles and has no marked bay or indentation. The civil parish extends about 8 miles from east to west.