Castle Map

Palace

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle

Scotland · 19th century

Founded
1864
Style
Scottish baronial architecture
Architect
David Bryce
Heritage status
category A listed building
Location
Outer Hebrides
Coordinates
57.96138°, -6.99043°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in Scotland
Photo: Les Ellingham · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle is a large 19th-century private country house on Harris, one of the Western Isles of Scotland. It was designated as a Category A listed building in 1971 and is now operated as a hotel and shooting estate.

Originally named Fincastle, the house was built in the Scottish baronial style by architect David Bryce in 1864–1867 for Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore (styled Viscount Fincastle until 1845), whose grandfather George Murray, 5th Earl of Dunmore had purchased the island in 1834. J M Barrie found inspiration for his play Mary Rose while staying at the castle in 1912 and visiting the nearby Loch Voshimid, "where we found Mary Rose". In 2003, Amhuinnsuidhe Castle Estate purchased the castle and the fishing rights, while the North Harris Estate was transferred into community ownership. The castle is now operated as a venue for fishing, shooting parties, weddings and corporate events.

In 2024 the house was used as a film location for a Gaelic language four-part television drama, An t-Eilean.

The house is squeezed into a narrow level space between the sea and the hill rising behind the house and both have to be restrained by walls in front and behind. The lack of level ground is probably why the main road skirts the front of the house, very unusual for a country house. It is built of imported freestone, stugged and snecked ashlar; rubbled masonry is used at the rear. The castellated four-storey main block has a corner turret and rounded corners. Its eastwards three-storey extension has a first-storey oriel window with flanking bartizans. The flanking blocks are only three storeys high and the western block is recessed from the road. The eastern block is even with the main block, but it is connected to the main block by a deeply recessed range, possibly to suggest a 17th-century addition to an older house. Gables are crowstepped throughout.

Text adapted from “Amhuinnsuidhe Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle ranks #4,097 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #150 of the 252 mapped in Scotland. Founded 1864, it is older than 7% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 782 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,373 times in the last 60 days, more than 64% of the atlas. It is one of the 84 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Scottish Highlands. See how Scotland compares in the castle statistics.

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