Castle Sinclair Girnigoe dates to the 15th century and served as the family seat of Clan Sinclair. It is located in the far north of Scotland, close to the town of Wick. One dark story associated with the castle relates to a family rift between father and son. In the 16th century, there was a long running dispute between George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness and the Murrays of Aberscross. The Murrays had just defeated a force of Sinclair’s allies when the Earl sent his son John to seek revenge. John successfully stormed the town of Dornoch, but instead of following his father’s orders to kill everybody in sight, he accepted the Murray’s surrender, taking hostages to ensure their good behaviour. This infuriated his father who viewed John’s lenient treatment of the clan's enemies as a betrayal. The Earl called John to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe to explain his actions and thereafter executed the Murray hostages. Sometime after this, he imprisoned John within the castle dungeons for 6 years after which he was fed a diet of salted beef, with nothing to drink, so that he eventually died insane from thirst. The family drama did not end there. After the 4th Earl passed away, John’s son, also a George, inherited the earldom and sought revenge for the fate that befell his father. George’s target were the two men responsible for holding his father in captivity, David and Ingram Sinclair. The three Sinclairs were all attending the wedding of Ingram’s daughter and George saw an opportunity to strike. When the Earl crossed paths with David Sinclair on his way to the party, he pulled out his sword and impaled him. Later, that day, George found Ingram playing a game of football as part of the celebrations. Without warning, he shot the father of the bride dead. After committing two very public murders in broad daylight, George returned home to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe and gained himself the nickname ‘The Wicked Earl George’. George was succeeded by his great-grandson, another George. During his tenure as Earl, the castle was seized by Oliver Cromwell in 1651 and used as his major stronghold in the North for nine years. The 6th Earl sold the land and the title to a cousin, Campbell of Glenorchy. As a result of this exchange, a dispute arose between Glenorchy and the remaining Sinclairs over these rights, which ended in the last clan battle fought in Scotland at Altimarlach in 1680. It was about then that the castle became ruined and has remained so ever since. The complex passed out of the Sinclair family but was bought back in the 1950s and donated to a trust set up for its preservation in 1999. #Scotland #visitscotland #castle #travel #scottishhighlands - @castlesofscotland