Scalloway Castle

In 1564 Robert Stewart, illegitimate son of King James V, was granted lands in Orkney and Shetland and established himself as a powerful but unscrupulous figure in the islands. Despite numerous complaints against him for seizing lands and misusing taxes, he was later made Earl of Orkney and Lord of Shetland by James VI. Stewart remained unpopular with the local lairds, who turned the king against him. He died impoverished in 1593, his earldom having been revoked in 1587 — so the title survived him by rather less than he did.

His son Patrick, who had been on unfriendly terms with his father, remained in the king's favour and was created Lord of Shetland in 1590. He effectively succeeded as Earl of Orkney on his father's death, though this was not formalised until 1600, and in Shetland he continued to appropriate lands and to feud with the lairds. Laurence Bruce of Cultmalindie, son of Robert Stewart's ally, became Patrick's chief opponent. Following his charter of the earldom in 1600, Patrick began the construction of Scalloway Castle, which was completed around 1607.

Construction was undertaken by unpaid workers summoned by Patrick from the parishes of Shetland, and overseen by his master of works Andrew Crawford. Crawford was probably also responsible for Patrick's Earl's Palace in Kirkwall, and for Muness Castle on Unst, built for Bruce of Cultmalindie — so the same hand built for both sides of the feud. Patrick's main residence was the Earl's Palace built by his father on Birsay in Orkney, and Scalloway was used by his representative in Shetland. The new castle also served as a meeting place for the thing, the parliament of Shetland, during Earl Patrick's ascendancy.

In 1609 the Shetland lairds complained to the king of Earl Patrick's misrule. He was imprisoned at Edinburgh Castle and executed in 1615 for encouraging his son Robert to retake his Orkney possessions — eight years after the castle was finished. Control of the islands passed to James Law, Bishop of Orkney, who held his first court at Scalloway Castle in August 1612. Troops were stationed in the castle in 1653, and by the early eighteenth century its condition was described as poor.

Some of the ornamental stonework was removed to be incorporated into the Haa of Sand, an eighteenth-century house north-west of Scalloway. The ruins were placed into state care in 1908, and excavations in 1979 and 1980 uncovered the remains of seventeenth-century outbuildings to the north of the tower.