Rait Castle

Rait Castle stands among rolling farmland just south of Nairn, close to Inverness in the Highlands. Built late in the 13th or early in the 14th century, it is a ruined hall-house of granite, scheduled as a monument. A steep granite outcrop forms part of its southern courtyard, where a wall rises about three metres and is nearly a metre thick. The main block measures roughly sixteen metres by seven metres and reaches eleven metres in height. Inside, the ground floor stored goods while the upper hall was reached by an outside stair defended by a portcullis and a drawbar. The castle’s past is marked by violence and shifting ownership. It began with the Comyns, who took the name de Rait, and later passed to the Mackintoshes and then the Campbells. In 1442 a feast between the de Raits and Mackintoshes ended in bloodshed; the laird chased his daughter through the castle, chopped off her hands, and she fell to her death. Her ghost, without hands, is said to haunt the ruins. Bonnie Raitt, the American singer, visited in 1990 as a descendant of the Rait clan. Visitors walk among the roofless walls and corner tower, where garderobe shafts drop nearly four metres. The thick granite keeps the ground floor cool and dark, while the upper level offers views across the surrounding fields. The site is quiet, with only the wind and occasional footsteps said to break the silence. The castle’s ruined state lets the structure speak for itself, from the portcullis groove to the broken stair that once led to the hall.