Dunrobin Castleand Gardens

Dunrobin Castle stands a mile northeast of Golspie on the Sutherland coast, seat of the Earls and later Dukes of Sutherland since the early 1300s. Its present French chateau-style appearance dates largely from 1835 to 1850, when architect Sir Charles Barry, later responsible for the Houses of Parliament, remodelled the building and laid out the formal gardens below it. The gardens are arranged as two parterres around circular pools, modelled on Versailles, and have changed little since planting. The castle holds 189 rooms and a Victorian museum of natural history and family artefacts; a resident falconer flies golden eagles and other birds of prey during the visitor season. The building served as a naval hospital in the First World War and as a boys' boarding school between 1965 and 1972 before returning to family and visitor use. It remains in the ownership of the Sutherland family and opens annually from April to October, with castle, gardens, museum and falconry forming a single estate visit.