Early Morning View Of Girnigoe And Sinclair Castle Caithness, Scotland.UK. Royalty-Free Stock Photo

Early morning view of Girnigoe and Sinclair Castle Caithness, Scotland. UK. Much has been written on the history of this spectacular ruin dramatically situated on cliffs projecting into Sinclair Bay about three miles north of Wick. The books tell us that this icon the County were two castles – one being the tower house built between 1476 and 1496 which was called Girnigoe and the other called Sinclair was built on land to the west in 1606 – and that they were partially destroyed by George Sinclair of Keiss who attacked it with cannon in either 1680 or 1690. Being such a strategic position, the site has been occupied for thousands of years. We have found a lot of evidence of occupation by Neolithic people 4500 to 2000 BC and some of the Mesolithic people before them. What the original building as we have no idea but the fortification would have been towards the end of the peninsular beyond what is now the inner moat on the land where the current tower house and outbuildings stand. The Trust needs to carry out more work and research to establish a likely date but we do know that it was used in the late 1300s. It would have been strongly fortified with a dry moat at its front and this is our best guess of what the castle looked like then.