Dalmunzie Castle

Dalmunzie Castle sits deep within a 6,500-acre Highland Perthshire estate at Spittal of Glenshee, on the southern edge of the Cairngorms National Park, in one of the more remote settings among Scotland's castle-hotels. The estate's documented history reaches back to 1510, when Sir William Scott granted the lands — including Dalmunzie — to John Fergusson of Dunfallandy. Ownership passed subsequently to the Fergussons of Dunfallandy and then to the MacRitchie family; two members of that family, Robert MacRitchie and his son, were outlawed in 1584 and 1589 respectively, a detail that hints at the turbulent, semi-lawless character of Highland landholding disputes in this period.

The family later associated most closely with Dalmunzie is also recorded under the name Mackintosh, and their history at the estate spans some of the most consequential conflicts in Scottish history. Robert Mackintosh, 3rd of Dalmunzie, fought on the side of the Marquess of Montrose in 1645, during the civil wars that convulsed Scotland at the time. Generations later, members of the Mackintosh family fought for the Jacobite cause, both in the 1715 Rising and at the decisive Battle of Culloden in 1746 — placing Dalmunzie's family history squarely within the broader Jacobite story that shaped so much of the Highlands' 18th-century experience. Notably, the castle that stood on the estate during these earlier centuries was already in ruins by the 17th century; the Scots Baronial house visitors encounter today dates only to the late 19th century, built well after the original fortification had been lost.

The Mackintosh family held Dalmunzie until 1916, when the last laird died without heirs, bringing centuries of family continuity at the estate to an end. The property was sold in 1920 to Sir Archibald Birkmyre, who undertook a significant expansion of the house and left two lasting marks on the estate that still define its character today: he laid out a golf course, and — in a striking display of the scale of ambition brought to bear on even the most remote Scottish estates in this period — built a private railway specifically to reach the estate, underscoring just how isolated Dalmunzie's setting in Glenshee genuinely was and remains.

During the Second World War, the estate served as a base for a mountain artillery regiment, a role suited to the surrounding terrain's steep glens and exposed high ground. Dalmunzie was sold in 1946 and has operated as a hotel ever since, evolving today into a 17-room boutique country hotel that trades on genuine remoteness and estate access rather than a conventional town or coastal setting.

The estate's nine-hole golf course remains explicitly open to the public, not just hotel guests, running from mid-April through to mid-October, with green fees payable at reception — a clear and confirmed point of non-resident access. The restaurant and bar present a more mixed picture: while the hotel describes itself as welcoming non-residents, at least one visitor account has reported being unable to secure a table without being a guest, so prospective day visitors are better served treating the golf course as the reliable public draw and checking availability for dining rather than assuming a table will be guaranteed.