Qualla: Carbisdale Castle

Carbisdale Castle: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Deez at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Look closely at the clock tower at Carbisdale Castle and you will notice something missing. The tower has three clock faces, not four. The blank side points south, toward the lands of the Sutherland family. The Duchess who built the castle did not want to give her former in-laws the time of day. That single architectural detail tells you almost everything you need to know about the place. Carbisdale is the Castle of Spite, and it earned the name fairly.

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Image: Deez at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Carbisdale Castle: Duchess Blair Goes to Prison

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit watakushi (Watakushiwa at de.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. Mary Caroline was the second wife of the third Duke of Sutherland, whom she married in 1889. She was already known as Duchess Blair, after a previous marriage to a Highland Light Infantry captain who had been killed in a hunting accident near Pitlochry. The Sutherland family did ...

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Image: watakushi (Watakushiwa at de.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Carbisdale Castle: A Castle Designed to Be Seen

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit watakushi (Watakushiwa at de.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. She chose her ground carefully. A hill in Ross-shire, just over the boundary, looking directly across the Kyle of Sutherland at the family's traditional country. She hired Ayrshire builders, commissioned a Scottish baronial pile of three hundred and sixty-five windows and forty-o...

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Image: watakushi (Watakushiwa at de.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Carbisdale Castle: Norwegian Royalty and a Pact About the Red Army

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit di_greatoutdoors from ?, CC BY-SA 2.0. During the Second World War, Carbisdale served a more dignified purpose. When the Nazi occupation of Norway forced King Haakon VII and Crown Prince Olav into exile, the castle became one of their refuges. On 22 June 1941 a meeting at Carbisdale established that if Soviet forces e...

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Image: di_greatoutdoors from ? | CC BY-SA 2.0

Carbisdale Castle: The Hostel Years

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Gilbertson, CC BY-SA 2.0. After the war, Captain Harold Salvesen inherited the castle from his father and made an extraordinary gift. He handed Carbisdale - the building, its contents, the estate - to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association. From 2 June 1945 until 2011, generations of walkers and cyclists ...

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Image: Roger Gilbertson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Carbisdale Castle: Private Again, and Haunted

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Gilbertson, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 2016 the castle was bought by FCFM Group Ltd with plans for a 'world-class private residence'. By 2021 it was back on the market at £1.5 million. In October 2022 the barrister Samantha Kane bought it, took the title Lady Carbisdale, and began restoration with the intention of ...

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Image: Roger Gilbertson | CC BY-SA 2.0