Tulloch Castle

Tulloch Castle stands on a low ridge above Dingwall in the Scottish Highlands, and its earliest history is genuinely uncertain in the way that appeals to castle enthusiasts rather than frustrates them: local tradition holds that a Norse fortress may have occupied this site as early as the 12th century, long before any of the building visible today was raised. The first firmly documented record of Tulloch dates to the 16th century, when the castle was associated with the Bayne family. Ownership subsequently passed to the Davidsons, and Tulloch became one of the historic seats of Clan Davidson for the centuries that followed — a connection that lasted until 1917, when Duncan Davidson, the last of the direct Davidson line at Tulloch, died.

The castle's physical fabric has been reshaped more than once by both accident and design. Part of the building was destroyed by fire in 1845, requiring reconstruction, and Tulloch was subsequently expanded twice more: once in 1891, and again between 1920 and 1923 under the direction of Sir Robert Lorimer, one of the most significant Scottish architects of the early 20th century, known for his work reviving and reinterpreting the Scottish Baronial style across the country. Lorimer's imprint on Tulloch places it in interesting company — his work also touched Glencruitten House near Oban in the same decade, a coincidence of shared architectural authorship across two very different Highland and Argyll properties.

When Duncan Davidson died without continuing the direct family line at Tulloch in 1917, the castle passed by marriage to the Vickers family. Its subsequent 20th-century history moved well beyond private residential use. During the Second World War, Tulloch served as a hospital for soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, a role shared by numerous Scottish country houses and castles pressed into wartime service. After the war, the castle was sold to the local council in 1957, and from then until 1976 it was used to house students attending Dingwall Academy — a genuinely unusual chapter of institutional use, closer to a boarding hall than either a private home or a hotel.

Tulloch has operated as a hotel since 1996, and its reputation today rests as much on atmosphere as architecture: it is widely described as one of the more reliably haunted castles in Scotland, with its ghost stories — centred on the so-called Green Lady — forming a well-established part of its identity as a destination. The Turrets Restaurant serves Highland produce and traditional Scottish dishes, and the Green Lady Bar, named for the castle's resident spirit, offers a well-stocked selection of malt whiskies, local gins and ales alongside hearty bar meals, all set beneath the castle's turrets a short drive from Dingwall's town centre.

For travellers building a Highlands itinerary around Inverness, Loch Ness and the surrounding glens, Tulloch's location just outside Dingwall places it within easy reach of the region's best-known sites, offering a genuinely historic and atmospheric base rather than a standard hotel room.

Dingwall itself is a market town with its own layered history, having served for centuries as a county town for Ross-shire, and its position at the head of the Cromarty Firth makes it a natural staging point for exploring both the eastern and western Highlands without committing to a base directly in the busier city of Inverness. Guests drawn to Tulloch's ghost stories will also find the castle sits within a region rich in its own folklore, from the Highland clearances history embedded in the surrounding glens to the older clan rivalries that shaped so much of this part of Ross-shire long before the Davidsons themselves arrived.