Tarbat House is a Category A listed building in the Highland council area of northern Scotland. [1] 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.
Tarbat House was erected on the site of a previous mansion which had been built for George Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Cromartie in the late 17th century on the grounds of the demolished Milntown Castle. When George Mackenzie had bought the Milntown estate in 1656, he renamed it New Tarbat after Tarbat Castle, the family's original seat in Tarbat. [2] Some of the remains of George Mackenzie's mansion were incorporated into the new one. Concurrent with the construction of the new house, Lord MacLeod planted thousands of new forest and fir trees on the estate. Some of the final building work on the house was unfinished when he died in 1789 after a year-long illness. The remaining work was completed to his plans by his cousin and successor, Kenneth Mackenzie. [3]
Sir George Steuart MacKenzie described the house in 1810:
Tarbat House is quite plain outside. Within are some handsome rooms. A great deal of space has been taken up by the architect having indulged himself in displaying wide landing spaces, and a spacious staircase. These are extremely pleasant during the summer months but are hardly suited to our long and dreary winters. The rooms are elegantly proportioned, and there is a fine view of Cromarty from the windows of the principal rooms. [4]
Tarbat House remained in the ownership of the MacKenzie family until the death of Sibell Lilian MacKenzie in 1962. It was placed on the "Buildings at risk" register of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in 1963 and added to the register of Category A listed buildings in 1971. [5] An arson attack in 1987 badly damaged the building, destroying the roof entirely, and while the east wing has now been restored, much of the rest of the house remains in a state of disrepair. [6] As of 2014, Tarbat House and the reduced Tarbat Estate were in private ownership.
Clan Ross is a Highland Scottish clan. The original chiefs of the clan were the original Earls of Ross.
Earl of Cromartie is a title that has been created twice, both for members of the Mackenzie family. It was first created as Earl of Cromarty in the Peerage of Scotland in 1703 for Sir George Mackenzie, 2nd Baronet, but his titles were forfeited after the Jacobite rising of 1745. It was recreated in 1861 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom for Anne Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland. Since 1979, the Earl of Cromartie has been chief of Clan Mackenzie.
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.
Strathpeffer is a village and spa town in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland, with a population of 1,469.
George Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Cromartie FRS (1630–1714), known as Sir George Mackenzie, 2nd Baronet from 1654 to 1685 and as The Viscount of Tarbat from 1685 to 1703, was a Scottish statesman.
George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie was a Scottish nobleman.
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.
Tarbat is a civil parish in Highland, Scotland, in the north-east corner of Ross and Cromarty.
Milton, known as Milntown of Tarbat until the early 1970s, is a small Easter Ross community between Kildary and Barbaraville on Scotland's North East coast.
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.
Newmore Castle is situated just north of the town of Alness in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland.
The Munros of Milntown were a family cadet branch of the Highland Clan Munro. As the earliest recorded cadet branch of the Munro chiefs, the Munros of Milntown were the 'senior' cadet branch of the clan, and spawned many cadet branches. They were frequently recorded as 'Monro' as well as Munro. The Munros of Milntown are notable for being involved in events concerning the history of the late Middle Ages in the Scottish Highlands.
Milntown Castle was an early 16th-century castle which was situated near Milton, in Easter Ross, in the Scottish Highlands.
John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod was a Scottish Jacobite politician and soldier of fortune.
John Ruaridh Grant Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Cromartie is a Scottish engineer and peer. He is the current chief of Clan Mackenzie.
Roderick Grant Francis Blunt-Mackenzie, 4th Earl of Cromartie, was a Scottish soldier and peer. In 1979, he was recognised as the chief of Clan Mackenzie.
Francis Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Cromartie was a British peer.
Ballone Castle was built in the 16th century. It was unoccupied for a couple of centuries and fell into ruin. In the 1990s it was purchased and restored by an architect. The original castle was built on a Z-plan and is unusual in having one round tower and one rectangular tower.
Further reading
Media related to Tarbat House at Wikimedia Commons