Duncraig Castle

A large Scots Jacobean mansion situated within wooded policies a half-mile (1 km) east of Plockton in the Lochalsh district of Highland Council Area, Duncraig Castle looks out over Loch Carron towards the Applecross Peninsula. It was built in 1866 for Sir Alexander Matheson (1805-86), who made his fortune in China, and designed by the prodigious Inverness-based architect Alexander Ross (1824 - 1925). It comprises three storeys and more than eighty rooms, including a grand dining room and private chapel and features a fine porte cochere on the south front. In 1927, Duncraig Castle was sold to Sir Daniel Hamilton (1860 -1939), who had acquired the Balmacara Estate from the Mathesons in 1919. Following use as a hospital during the Second World War, the house was bequeathed to Ross and Cromarty County Council, who used it as a school of domestic science. The house was C-listed in 1982. After falling into disrepair, Duncraig was bought by the extended Dobson family who moved here from England and whose account of living together while restoring the castle featured in a BBC television series in 2004. Sold once again, a further restoration was undertaken with the castle serving as a private home and reopening n 2021 as a luxury bed and breakfast accommodation and a wedding venue.

Sir Alexander Matheson did much to bring about the building of the West Highland Railway Line, which passes Duncraig with a halt immediately to the west.


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