Dalcross Castle is a restored 17th century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, about southwest of Croy,

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, and about northeast of

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...

. The castle stands on a ridge.Lindsay, Maurice (1986) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Constable. p.180

History

The Frasers of Lovat owned the property and the 8th

Lord Lovat Lord Lovat ( gd, Mac Shimidh) is a title of the rank Lord of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for Hugh Fraser by summoning him to the Scottish Parliament as Lord Fraser of Lovat, although the holder is referred ...

built a castle here in 1620, but it passed to the Mackintoshes soon after. Prior to the

battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden (; gd, Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince Wi ...

the Hanoverian troops mustered here in 1746. The house was abandoned, and became ruinous, but it was restored and reoccupied in the 20th century, by descendants of the Mackintosh

lairds Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in a ...

. The restoration of the castle was probably by W L Carruthers, in 1896. The castle became a category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

on 5 October 1971, and the entrance arch and gate lodge became a category C

17 April 1986. In 1987 it was also listed as a

Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a cont ...

. It was bought in 1996 and modernised by Maxwell & Company Architects. The project was completed in 2003. By 2008 the castle was available for up to 12 guests to stay in.

Structure

Although referred to as an

L-plan An L-plan castle is a castle or tower house in the shape of an L, typically built from the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, and other location ...

castle, it may be better described as two offset wings joined at the corner. One wing has five storeys and an attic, while the other has three, their connection being a projecting square tower, which has a

bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from th ...

, and is topped by a garbled watch-chamber, this creates two re-entrant angles. There have been extensions since the castle was originally built, including a two-storey 18th-century addition to the north

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

. There are many gunloops and shot-holes in the walls, while many windows still have their iron

yett A yett (from the Old English and Scots language word for "gate") is a gate or grille of latticed wrought iron bars used for defensive purposes in castles and tower houses. Unlike a portcullis, which is raised and lowered vertically using mech ...

s. At the foot of the square stair-tower is the entrance from the

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

, leading to a vaulted

basement A basement or cellar is one or more Storey, floors of a building that are completely or partly below the storey, ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, ...

. This basement contains cellars, a

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...

with a large

arched An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vault ...

fireplace A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the desig ...

, and a

wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system ...

with a small staircase to the fine first

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

, which may also be reached by the wide main stair. above. The

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

chimney piece has a moulded surround a coat of arms, and the motto, “Je Trouve Bien”. The upper bedroom quarters may be reached by a small turnpike stair. A massive

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typ ...

stack tops the east wall of the north wing. The building is of red rubble, with tooled and polished ashlar dressings. The doorway has filletted roll to moulded door jambs, and stepped

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

. The panel above the doorway shows the date 1720. Some windows, including dormers, were added in 1896. There are gardens surrounded by a coped wall of red rubble.

References

External links

* * https://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/Chatelaine/DALCROSS.HTM * https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/hes/14152/dalcross-castle/rcahms
Dalcross Castle
an
Dalcross Castle, Tin House, Laundry & Game Larders
Canmore entries {{Authority control Castles in Highland (council area) Category A listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed castles in Scotland Tower houses in Scotland

History

Structure

References

Further reading

External links