Thurso Castle - a 19th century ruin from the town where I was born

I've just realised that although I've made quite a few posts about castles, I've never made one about the castle from my hometown ! I was born in Thurso on the north coast of Scotland. The town has a castle, called Thurso Castle, funnily enough, which is home to the a family which carry the title Lord Thurso. The family name is Sinclair, which is quite common in the far North East of Scotland.

Unfortunately the castle is completely ruined. It was built in around the 1870s, and was very pretty in its day (I've seen pictures), but since I can remember, from around the late 1970s, it has been a ruin, similar to what can be seen in the picture above.

I understand that it had very unstable foundations so actually had to be taken down, which must have been heartbreaking. From the pic above, you can see that it is in a very poor state.

In the picture above, the white part is still inhabited by the family, and I understand that used to be the servants quarters.

The castle is right by the sea (like 20 metres away) and has a beautiful view out over Thurso Bay, and the North Atlantic.

When I was a kid there was a sort of garden area in front of it which had two small towers and about 3 large bronze cannons, all within a sea wall. From my earliest memory the wall was starting to collapse a little in one corner, because the sea is super ferocious and hence it would take a battering daily.

However, these days all thats left of the garden is the remains of one of the corner towers (above) - the rest is gone - claimed by the sea. I do remember seeing atleast one of the cannons down on the shore, but I guess they were salvaged as they would have still had a material value. Its sad to see considering how pretty it once was.

The castle had some pretty impressive stone work, and the towers were really pretty. It would have been lovely to have seen it all still standing. I understand it was largely demolished in the early 1950s.

We used to play down there all the time as kids - mostly to explore the rock pools at the waters edge and the like. I have glimpsed the inside from the wall in the corner - but it really is a mess, and not at all safe to enter (also noting its on private ground anyway).

Although it is a ruin, it still attracts quite a few visitors. The walk along to it is over grown these days, but you can still easily get there, and I still think its a beautiful structure. Plus the setting and views are lovely.

The view above is taken from in front of the castle looking over towards Thurso harbour. And the bay there attracts a lot of surfers due to the consistency of the waves.

Allegedly some kind of fort has been at the site since the 12th century, but I've never seen or heard of any remains - I'm assuming it was removed or build on top of when the existing castle was put in place.

Well thats it really, a lovely ruin overlooking a beautiful bay in the far north. Just such a shame that it had to be torn down. But it still has its charm for me, and always will.