Caithness Castles and other fortified buildings.

A history and guide to the strongholds and lairds houses of Caithness

By Michael J. Gunn

Hardback, A4, 250 pp, 200 illustrations, maps and plans

Limited edition 1000 copies only signed and numbered

List price GB£25.00

This book recounts the histories and family connections of more than one hundred Caithness strongholds. Documenting the growth and development of fortified buildings in Caithness commencing with the Iron and Bronze Age hill forts and brochs, through the Viking and Norse strongholds, to the medieval castles and the later lairds' houses.

The stories are often bloody and cruel, including a bishop roasted to death on his own fire, a massacre in a chapel, a mistress murdered and her body concealed in her lover's castle, a lovely girl abducted and raped throwing herself from battlements, a son starved to death in a dungeon by his own father. There are accounts of sieges, night-time assaults and towers burnt down; of clan feuds, great raids and the carrying off of cattle, sheep and women. Tales of little castles and towers built in remote places as bases for hunting the great herds of red deer which still roam the wilder parts of Caithness today. Of cliff-top fortresses with secret passages leading down to the sea, of deliberate shipwreck on treacherous rocks, of a secret room used by a counterfeiter to make false coin.

Superbly illustrated with numerous reproductions of early drawings, prints, engravings and old photographs, many showing the castles and houses in their heyday. In addition a large number of new photographs have been specially taken including close-up shots of details of windows, doorways, entrances and construction techniques. This inclusion of early and recent images serves to illustrate the changes which have occurred to the various buildings over the centuries. Site maps and plans are also included together with suggested tour routes allowing visitors to plan convenient excursions which take in several strongholds in a day.

Contents:

• Forward
• Preface
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• List of illustrations, maps and plans
• The strongholds A-Z
• Sources
• Glossary
• Index

Published by Highland Heritage Press, an imprint of Academic Microforms Limited

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Michael J. Gunn has also written a new history of the Clan Gunn which is awaiting publication. For details on this work please email us