Castle of Mey

Between 1566 and 1572 George Sinclair, the 4th Earl of Caithness, built the castle on Scotland's north coast, possibly reusing the site of an earlier fortification held by the Bishops of Caithness. The result was a Z-plan tower house of three storeys, with a projecting wing to the south-east and a square tower to the north-west enclosing a three-sided courtyard open to the sea.

The castle passed to Lord Caithness's younger son William, who founded the Sinclairs of Mey, though it later became the seat of the earls themselves. Its name changed to Barrogill, and the building was extended repeatedly through the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1821 it was remodelled again in the Tudor Gothic style, to designs by the architect William Burn.

Barrogill passed out of the Sinclair family in 1889, on the death of the 15th Earl of Caithness, when it went to F. G. Heathcote, who later took the Sinclair name himself. In 1929 Captain Frederic Bouhier Imbert-Terry bought the estate. During the Second World War the castle served as an officers' rest home, and by 1950, when the estate farms were sold off, only the tower remained habitable.

The estate was in a semi-derelict state in 1952 when it was bought by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, recently widowed by the death of King George VI. She restored it as a holiday home, reinstating the original name of Castle of Mey and installing electricity and water for the first time. Further work through 1953 and 1954 made the building weathertight, and the west wing was not finished until 1960.

The Queen Mother hung portraits of the former owners, the Earls of Caithness, throughout the castle and visited regularly each August and October from 1955 until her death in March 2002, last returning in October 2001. In July 1996 she transferred the property, its grounds and farm to the Queen Elizabeth Castle of Mey Trust, established under a Deed of Trust dated 11 June 1996, opening the castle and garden to the public each summer after her death.

The Trust opened the castle for five months each year to fund its upkeep, recording nearly 30,000 visits in 2018, the same year it completed roof repairs, rewiring and lime harling of the exterior. On 1 January 2019 stewardship passed to the Prince's Foundation, whose president, Charles III, became the Trust's sole trustee while pledging to continue his grandmother's aims for the property.

In May 2019 the Prince of Wales, later Charles III, opened Granary Lodge, a ten-bedroom bed and breakfast created from the castle's former stables and granary using eco-heating and local materials and craftsmen. Its profits go towards maintaining the estate. In January 2023 the castle tearoom began opening to the public every Tuesday through March as a warming centre under the King's Foundation.