Brims Castle is a ruined 16th century 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, to command and defend strategic points ...

on Brims Ness,

Highland region Highland (, ; ) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It has land borders with t ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, to the south of the

Pentland Firth The Pentland Firth (, meaning the Orcadian Strait) is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth. Etymology The name is presumed to be a corruption of the Old Nors ...

,Lindsay, Maurice (1995). ''The Castles of Scotland''. London: Constable & Co Ltd. p. 97 about north west of

Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; , ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great Britain. From a latitudinal s ...

History

The original castle was originally owned by the Sinclairs, passing to different branches of the family. It was occupied until after 1970. By the late twentieth century it was occupied as part of the adjacent farm, but it has become increasingly ruinous, and it is in a dangerous state.

Structure

Brims Ness is a

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...

. The castle on it had three storeys and a

garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally small with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a building, at the very to ...

. There was a square stair-wing with a watch-tower on top, but this was replaced by a pitched roof. The entrance at the junction of the main block and the stair jamb has a semi-circular open

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

over it. There was a

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 a ...

to the north, now filled with later buildings, which had a sea-gate. A movable timber stair allowed entrance at the first storey. The hall, on the first storey, was connected by a private stair to the

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

. Apparently there was a bedroom on each of the upper floors, and it is thought that there would have been lean-to bedroom accommodation, along with the kitchen, in the courtyard. The grounds contain a burial ground and a ruined chapel, dedicated to St John.

Ghostlore

Local

ghostlore Ghostlore is an intricate web of Tradition, traditional beliefs and folklore surrounding ghosts and List of reportedly haunted locations, hauntings. Ghostlore has ingrained itself in the cultural fabric of societies worldwide. Defined by narrative ...

states that a white lady, the ghost of the daughter of James Sinclair of Uttersquoy is said to haunt the building. Supposedly Patrick Sinclair of Brims was her lover but murdered her and concealed her body in the castle when he had tired of her.

History

Structure

Ghostlore

References

Further reading