Castle Stuart

01 / The documented castle

Three earls and a date in stone

This is Castle Stuart in the parish of Petty, northeast of Inverness. Older records sometimes spell it Castle Stewart. It is separate from Inverness Castle in the city centre and from other Scottish properties bearing the Stewart name.

Martin Coventry’s castle history traces the property through the Mackintoshes to James Stewart, Earl of Moray, Mary, Queen of Scots’ half-brother. The family’s rise was shadowed by violence: the first earl was assassinated at Linlithgow in 1570, and the second was killed at Donibristle in 1592. James, the third earl, completed Castle Stuart around 1625. Coventry also records a Mackintosh seizure during a dispute over ownership and compensation, followed by its return to the Stewarts.

The date has a physical anchor. An Ordnance Survey visit in April 1962 recorded 1625 stones high on both the front and rear walls. Older mapping placed the building on the site of Hallhill Castle, but that survey found no visible evidence of an earlier structure. An older site tradition should therefore be distinguished from an identified surviving medieval wall.

02 / Reading the building

A tall house with more than one face

The official listing describes a long main block with square towers at its southern corners and smaller projecting turrets to the north. The differing heights, stepped gables and crown above the stair turret give the roofline its restless shape. Narrow openings survive at ground level, while larger windows light the upper rooms. The castle and its gatepiers have been Category A listed since 5 October 1971.

Inside, Coventry describes a vaulted basement containing the kitchen, an oven and cellars. A small stair connected the wine cellar with the hall above; other stairs served the private chambers. Picture a household moving between these levels: provisions below, company gathered in the hall, and quieter rooms higher in the towers. These practical routes make the building easier to imagine than a bare list of turrets.

03 / The castle through time

Its silhouette did not stand still

The outline in our photograph includes a substantial Victorian chapter. Historic Environment Scotland identifies restoration and alterations by J. M. Wardrop and C. Reid in 1869. The work included a new principal entrance, changes to windows and the southwest tower’s battlements and open crown spire. Much interior panelling belongs to that campaign too.

That matters when reading descriptions of a castle abandoned for centuries. The heritage record preserves evidence of nineteenth-century intervention and an inhabited building in 1962. A simple story of uninterrupted ruin would miss those chapters.

Castle Stuart’s appeal lies partly in that mixture. The house has been repaired, adapted and made useful again, leaving different generations visible in the same walls. Its picturesque skyline is itself part of that continuing history.

04 / Smaller traces of the past

Two finds beneath the grand story

The archaeological record contains a modest detail easily lost among the earls and ghost stories. Trove records two medieval objects made from copper alloy, found through metal detecting: a strap-end and a sword-belt fastener. The short notice is attributed to P. Weeks and H. Gordon in 2001.

These small fittings bring the account down to things people carried and wore. The published summary does not identify their owners or establish a connection with a particular room, battle or reported apparition. They deserve attention on their own terms: tangible objects recorded here, with much of their individual history still unknown.

05 / The Three Turret tradition

Four nights in the room upstairs

Castle Stuart’s best-known tale turns a haunting into a test of nerve. Frances Abbot’s 2012 Spooky Isles article recounts a story she found in a book written in 1930 from an oral tradition. After occupants repeatedly flee the castle, a minister proposes that four men each spend a night in the troubled room.

The minister encounters a Highlander in what he takes to be a dream. The church elder sees a skull reflected in a mirror; the shoemaker faces a figure with cloven hooves. Last comes Rob Angus, an illicit whisky-maker and poacher. By morning he has vanished, the room is wrecked and the window is gone. A passing drover supplies the dreadful ending: a man hurled from the window and the Devil’s face looking out afterwards.

It is an atmospheric inherited story, retold by Abbot rather than a contemporary witness statement. Her article does not provide records establishing Rob Angus’s death or a date for the four vigils. The sequence remains an inherited haunting tradition.

The story’s power comes from its slow narrowing of the scene: four men, one room, a closed door. Knowing how it was handed down allows that atmosphere to survive without turning its dramatic ending into a documented event.

06 / The setting today

An old tower beside a changing landscape

The castle now appears in a landscape familiar to golfers. Cabot Highlands’ official information describes Old Petty, designed by Tom Doak, running beside the tidal estuary and bringing players closer to the tower. The course formally opened on 15 May 2026, alongside the established Castle Stuart course.

The shared name can make online searches confusing. A Castle Stuart tee time concerns the golf course; a stay-and-play package currently describes accommodation in on-site lodges. Neither establishes a booking for a bedroom in the old castle. Read the accommodation details carefully before imagining a night beneath those turrets.

07 / Planning a visit

Confirm access to the castle itself

Castle Stuart is described as private by The Castles of Scotland. A current castle-operated opening schedule or interior booking route could not be verified on 15 September 2026. The former castlestuart.com website led to a domain-for-sale page when checked. That does not establish whether any privately arranged visits are possible.

For a castle visit, contact the current owner or authorised operator and confirm the exact arrangement before travelling. Permission to use neighbouring visitor facilities does not automatically include the castle or its immediate grounds.

Our exterior photograph was taken on 23 December 2019. It offers a clear view of the building, but should not be read as proof of present access or condition. The best starting point remains the real place: a layered Highland house, with a memorable story waiting at the top of the stairs.