Baron Seigfried Nickolai Stackelberg of Erchless Castle husband of Phyllis Roscoe, 1st cousin to Charles Sanderson of Lytham St

Erchless Castle is an

L-plan castle 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 ...

in northern

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 the ...

, near

Struy Struy ( gd, An t-Srùigh or gd, Sruidh) is a small village at the end of Glen Strathfarrar, about 15 km south-west of Beauly in the Highland council area of Scotland. Description The confluence of the River Farrar and the River Glass is a ...

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 ...

. The current building was built in about 1600.Erchless Castle
British Listed Buildings, Retrieved 26 March 2017 The castle is located at the northeast end of

Strathglass Strathglass is a strath or wide and shallow valley in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland down which runs the meandering River Glass from the point at which it starts at the confluence of the River Affric and Abhainn Deabhag to the point where, ...

at the point where the Erchless Burn enters the

River Beauly The River Beauly ( gd, Abhainn nam Manach, ) is a river in the Scottish Highlands, about 15 km west of the city of Inverness. It is about 25 km long, beginning near the village of Struy, at the confluence of the River Farrar and the R ...

, itself newly formed from the confluence of the rivers

Glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

and Farrar immediately to the south of the castle.

History

A building was built in the 13th century by the Bissetts, it came into the hands of the Chisholms in the 15th century, by the marriage of Alexander de Chisholme to Margaret, Lady of Erchless, and became their ancestral home. The existing building is dated to about 1600 as an L-plan

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 ...

and underwent it alterations in the 19th century with the addition of a Baronial-style wing in 1895.Erchless Castle
British Listed Buildings, Retrieved 26 March 2017 It is protected as a Category B

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 Irel ...

History in the 20th century

After the death of the last surviving member of the direct line of Chisholms the estate was owned by the trustees of the late Lady Chisholm, Annie Cecilia Chisholm of Chisholm. In 1932–33 the Estate Manager was recorded as William Macintyre, and he lived at the Sawmill Cottage. The ''Highland News'', 17 April 1937, states that the Chisholm Estates had been sold on 10 April 1937 to an unknown buyer. The lands were said to have included Erchless Castle and Forest, with deer in the forests of Affric, Fasnakyle, Cozac, Benula together with the outlying estates of Buntait, Kerrow and Rheindown. The buyer was Highland Estates Ltd. In 1946 the Erchless Estate and castle were bought on behalf of Baron Siegfried Nikolai von Stackelberg and his wife Baroness Phyllis von Stackelberg. The funds came from the estate of her father George Roscoe, a member of the firm ''James Roscoe & Sons''. The Estate continued in the ownership of the Trustees of George Roscoe until 1963–64, but the Valuation Roll for the following year names the new

Laird 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 ...

ship of Erchless (estate) as being held by the family of Sir Lawrence Robson, founder of accountancy firm

Robson Rhodes RSM Robson Rhodes LLP was a partnership of chartered accountants in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It was the UK member firm of RSM Global, the 6th largest network of professional accountancy firms in the world. With office ...

. However, the Trustees did not sell the whole of the former Erchless Estate: the Valuation Roll for Kilmorack for 1964–65 records them as still owning Teanassie House, and most of Breakachy. Baron and Baroness von Stackelberg had moved into Teanassie House to live in retirement. Their gravestone reads: "In memory of Baron Nicholas Stackelberg of Teanassie House, much loved husband of Phyllis, died 30 September 1966. Phyllis Mary Roscoe died 21 March 1982." On the death of Sir Lawrence Robson in 1982, the castle was inherited by his son, Erik Maurice William Robson.

Citations

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External links

Erchless Castle

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" inanced and with oversightthrough Historic Scotland, an executive ...

Erchless Castle Site
Castles in Highland (council area) Clan Bissett Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed castles in Scotland Scottish baronial architecture Lowland castles Clan Chisholm