Qualla: Castle of Mey https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/t/castle-of-mey-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Castle of Mey https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey Castle of Mey: Introduction https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey/ Photo credit Dorcas Sinclair, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the autumn of 1952, a recently widowed Queen Elizabeth - the woman the British public would come to call the Queen Mother - was driving along the bleak north coast of Scotland when she heard that a semi-derelict castle nearby was about to be abandoned and possibly demolished. She bought it. The Castle of Mey, six miles west of John o' Groats and within sight of Orkney across the Pentland Firth, would become her private refuge for the next fifty years - the only home she ever owned outright, and a place she returned to every August until her death.

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Image: Dorcas Sinclair | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/t/castle-of-mey-wp/gfmt-castle-of-mey-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Castle of Mey: Built by a Sinclair https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey/ Photo credit jeff collins, CC BY-SA 2.0. Long before it was royal, the castle was the work of George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness, who built it between 1566 and 1572 on land that had belonged to the Bishops of Caithness. It began as a Z-plan tower house of three storeys, with a projecting wing at the southeast and a ...

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Image: jeff collins | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/t/castle-of-mey-wp/gfmt-castle-of-mey-built-by-a-sinclair.mp3 0:06 2 full Castle of Mey: A Queen's Restoration https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey/ Photo credit Orikrin1998, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Queen Mother bought Barrogill in 1952, the year King George VI died, and immediately set about restoring it. She stripped away the 19th-century additions she didn't like, reinstated the original name - Castle of Mey - and brought in, for the first time in the building's histo...

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Image: Orikrin1998 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/t/castle-of-mey-wp/gfmt-castle-of-mey-a-queens-restoration.mp3 0:06 3 full Castle of Mey: The Trust and the Crown https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey/ Photo credit Riversiderouge, CC BY-SA 4.0. Knowing the castle would outlive her, the Queen Mother established the Castle of Mey Trust by a Deed of Trust on 11 June 1996. The Trust's then-president was the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and its mandate was sweepingly practical: secure the building, advance historic...

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Image: Riversiderouge | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/t/castle-of-mey-wp/gfmt-castle-of-mey-the-trust-and-the-crown.mp3 0:06 4 full Castle of Mey: Granary Lodge https://qualla.com/castle-of-mey/ Photo credit Stanley Howe, CC BY-SA 2.0. In May 2019, Charles - then still Prince of Wales - opened a new building on the grounds called Granary Lodge: a ten-bedroom bed and breakfast carved out of the old stables and granary. The project used local materials, local craftsmen, and what the planners called eco-heating, a...

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Image: Stanley Howe | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/t/castle-of-mey-wp/gfmt-castle-of-mey-granary-lodge.mp3 0:06 5 full