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Remains of castle, dating from the 13th century AD. It is of simple curtain wall type on a quadrangular plan with rectangular gate-towers on the south and a thick outer wall with sloping plinth. Remains of apartments lie round three sides of the interior. Outside the castle to the east and south is a scarp which could be the remains of an original defence, mutilated by trees and now overgrown. According to Cruden the history of the castle goes back to the 12th century AD which suggests that the present castle had a predecessor. The Royal castle and manor were mentioned in 1212 and again in 1296. The castle is supposed to be of great antiquity and to have been occupied by Kenneth III, Alexander the Lion, Alexander III, Edward I and Robert II. The castle was granted to William, Earl of Sutherland in 1346 and does not seem to have reverted to the crown, although Robert II dated a charter there in 1383, when presumably the castle was still habitable. Nothing is known thereafter except that the property was broken up and that the castle and park passed to the Strachans of Thornton in 1475. Excavation was carried out at the castle in 2013 as part of the Scottish medieval parks project. A trench was excavated across the range of buildings on the south side of the courtyard. Material of probable medieval date was recovered from under demolition rubble, a sample of animal bone giving a radiocarbon date of 1039 - 1022 AD. The floor surface revealed suggested a utilitarian function possibly as a guard room adjacent to the entrance. A programme of landscape, buildings and materials analysis is being carried out as part of the Scottish Medieval Castles and Chapels C14 project. Initial work in 2018 highlighted the potential for analysis of constructional masonry mortar to inform understanding of the building's construction and chronology. A sampling programme and subsequent analysis confirmed that this was wood-fired limestone-lime mortar and suggested it had been sourced from a local metamorphic rock outcrop.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)