Dounreay Castle

Dounreay Castle stands on the northern coast of Scotland, eight miles west of Thurso. It is a ruined L-plan castle from the 16th century, built within the grounds of the Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment. The castle is also known as Dounreay House and is recognised as a scheduled monument. The site includes the castle ruins and associated structures, set within a landscape shaped by later development. The castle’s location offers views over the surrounding area and the nearby coast. The castle has a layered history tied to prominent families. In 1614, William Sinclair of Dunbeath owned the property, and by 1726 it served as one of the lodgings for the Earl of Caithness. Ownership later passed to the Forbeses, the Mackays of Reay, and then the Mackays of Tongue. The castle remained in use until 1863, but by 1910 it had become a roofless ruin. Cromwellian troops were stationed there in the mid-17th century, and the site was later levelled except for the castle and a cottage block during the construction of the research establishment. The castle’s structure includes a three-storey main block and a wing containing a scale-and-platt stair. The main block measures about 12 metres by 7.2 metres, with walls roughly 1.1 metres thick. The entrance is located in the re-entrant angle of the jamb, below the staircase. Surrounding the castle is a barmkin, parts of which survive on the south-western and seaward sides. The north-west angle of the castle has collapsed, and the interior is filled with rubble. Archaeological work in the late 1990s uncovered little beyond a large millstone, likely linked to a mill shown on an early Ordnance Survey map.