The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry | Goblinshead | A comprehensive guide to 4,100 castles, towers, historic houses, stately homes and family lands
The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry | Goblinshead | A comprehensive guide to 4,100 castles, towers, historic houses, stately homes and family lands
The Castles of Scotland
The Castles of Scotland 

Helmsdale Castle

Sutherland & Caithness: In Helmsdale, on minor road just west of A9, just north of River Helmsdale, site of Helmsdale Castle.

 

Site   ND 027152   OS: 17   KW8 6HT

Helmsdale was an old tower house, long a property of the Sinclairs and the scene of a famous poisoning, but it has been demolished, standing at the village of Helmsdale in Sutherland in the far northeast of Scotland. Helmsdale Castle (Daniell, 1822)
Plan of Helmsdale Castle was an old tower house, long a property of the Sinclairs and the scene of a famous poisoning, but it has been demolished, standing at the village of Helmsdale in Sutherland in the far northeast of Scotland. Helmsdale Castle: plan (MacGibbon and Ross)
Helmsdale was an old tower house, long a property of the Sinclairs and the scene of a famous poisoning, but it has been demolished, standing at the village of Helmsdale in Sutherland in the far northeast of Scotland. Helmsdale Castle (Campbell, 1920)

Site of castle, an L-plan tower, dating from the 15th century, with a stair in the re-entrant angle. ‘Helmsdail’ is marked on Blaeu’s map of Sutherland.
  This was a property of the Sutherland Earls of Sutherland, built about 1488 and altered in 1616 by the Gordons of Navidale.

Helmsdale was an old tower house, long a property of the Sinclairs and the scene of a famous poisoning, but it has been demolished, standing at the village of Helmsdale in Sutherland in the far northeast of Scotland. Helmsdale Castle (old postcard)
Helmsdale Castle was an old tower house, long a property of the Sinclairs and the scene of a famous poisoning, but it has been demolished, standing at the village of Helmsdale in Sutherland in the far northeast of Scotland. Helmsdale Castle (old postcard)

It was at Helmsdale Castle that in 1567 Isobel Sinclair, the Earl’s aunt, poisoned John, the 11th Earl of Sutherland and his wife to try in order make her own son Earl. She also tried to poison Alexander, the Earl’s heir, but the cup of poison was drunk by her own son, who died two days later, and Alexander survived. She killed herself before being executed in Edinburgh. The whole affair was apparently a plot hatched by George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness so he could seize the Sutherland earldom (also see Dunrobin Castle and Dornoch Palace).

Helmsdale Castle was an old tower house, long a property of the Sinclairs and the scene of a famous poisoning, but it has been demolished, standing at the village of Helmsdale in Sutherland in the far northeast of Scotland. Helmsdale Castle (old postcard)

The property later passed to the Gordons. The castle was ruined by 1858, and was sadly removed in the 1970s when the A9 was realigned with a new bridge. A stone by the carpark commemorates the castle.

  Helmsdale has a working harbour in a pretty spot, and in the village is Timespan Museum and Arts Centre.

New sixth edition in preparation: more than 1,500 additional sites, hundreds more illustrations, comprehensive online maps and indexes, and much much more.

Due for 2024, and still a huge amount of work to do … more info to follow soon.

Check any and all opening and access information with the sites themselves…

Contact

Goblinshead

Cockenzie House
22 Edinburgh Road
Cockenzie

EH32 0HY

 

Email: info@thecastlesofscotland.co.uk

 

Or use our contact form.

Spring is here, Red tulips from Cockenzie House Spring is here…
Print | Sitemap
© Martin Coventry