Dunrobin Castle (mostly 1835–1845 — present) is a stately home in Sutherland, in the Highland area of Scotland, as well as the family seat of the Earl of Sutherland, Chief of the Clan Sutherland. It is located one mile (1.5 kilometres) north of Golspie and approximately five miles (eight kilometres) south of Brora, overlooking the Dornoch Firth.
Dunrobin’s origins lie in the Middle Ages, but most of the present building and the gardens were added by Sir Charles Barry between 1835 and 1850. Some of the original building is visible in the interior courtyard, despite a number of expansions and alterations that made it the largest house in the north of Scotland. After being used as a boarding school for seven years, it is now open to the public.
There are 189 rooms within the castle, making it the largest in the northern Highlands. Much of Barry’s interior was destroyed by the fire of 1915, leading to the restoration by Sir Robert Lorimer, although he incorporated surviving 17th-century and 18th-century work, including wood carvings attributed to Grinling Gibbons. Externally, the castle has elements inspired by the work of the French architect Viollet-le-Duc, such as the pyramidal roof over the main entrance. The portion built by Barry uses freestone in broadly the same style as the turreted parts from the 16th and 17th centuries, but borrows significant elements from the château style. A large quadrangular pile of four stories, with towers at each corner, connects to the older castle by a building of three stories and containing the stately apartments. The tallest tower, containing the entrance, is 135 ft (41 m) high, the round towers being 115 ft (35 m) high and the clock tower 125 ft (38 m). St. John’s Well, in the courtyard of the oldest portion of the castle, is one of the deepest draw wells in Scotland, at 92 feet (28 m). There is no indication as to the origin of the name.
In the entrance hall is a frieze of the armorials used by past earls of Sutherland. The main stairway, decorated with portraits of the Leveson-Gower family, is around 30 ft (9 m) wide and 50 ft (15 m) high. The panelled dining room, 40 ft (12 m) long and 22 ft (6.7 m) wide, has a wall-top Italian Grisaille frieze and a Khorassan carpet, as well as chairs containing the needlework of the 5th Duke’s wife. The drawing room, made from two previous rooms by Lorimer during his restoration of the castle, looks out over the gardens and sea, and contains large Canalettos and 18th-century tapestries, as well as portraits by Hoppner and Reynolds. Housing over 10,000 books, the library features a painting by Philip de László of Duchess Eileen, as well as a mahogany Chippendale table. There is an aeolian orchestrelle, a pressure-operated harmonium reed organ, located in one of the hallways.
The French influence extends into the gardens, completed in 1850, with Barry taking inspiration from the French formal style of the Gardens of Versailles. Each parterre is set around a circular pool with a fountain, with the essential layout the same since it was created in around 1848. Barry designed the parterre as an optical illusion, seen from above they appear to stretch beyond their physical layout, by narrowing it gradually. The total landscaped area is 1,379 acres (558 hectares).
A museum displays the trophy heads of animals shot by family members on safari, ethnographic items from around the world and an important collection of archaeological artefacts. The museum retains its Victorian-Edwardian arrangement, and is housed in an 18th-century summer-house adjoining the formal gardens. Historically, the castle is a category A listed building, and the gardens are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. The castle is open to visitors between April and October each year. Falconry displays are held in the castle’s gardens by a resident Falconer.
