Castle Renovation

The Castle is furnished throughout not with antiques that cannot be touched, but with carved oak pieces in the Jacobean style.

These have been created by master carvers from 300-400 year old timbers from ruined cottages and hand carved in the traditional manner.

The furniture gives visitors not only a feeling of romance for the past, but also confront them with the work of modern craftsmen.

The Stuarts call it - renaissance.

 

Dining Room

From the battlements, looking eastward, it is easy to picture Prince Charlie's tired and dejected army filing wearily past the castle on their way to die on nearby Culloden Moor after their aborted raid on Cumberland's army at Nairn.

The ghosts of yesterday have been brought back to Castle Stuart in a series of oil paintings, now hanging in the Dining Room.

William Burton, an artist from Broxburn, who lost an ancestor at Culloden, was commissioned to paint 12 large canvases depicting events of the '45 and Bonnie Charlie's tragic attempt to restore the Stuart monarchy.

 

Bedrooms

In keeping with the period, each bedroom is named after one of the clans that fought at Culloden and carpeted in that family's tartan.

Each bedchamber is slightly differently arranged.

The old closets or alcoves ('garde loo') have been turned into bathrooms.

The central heating is good enough to satisfy our pampered present day demands and the shower and bath fixtures from Canada will make bathing somewhat easier than it was in the good 3rd Earl's day.

 

The Haunted Room

Are you brave enough to hear about the Three-Turret Haunted Bedroom at the top of the East Tower?

It is the room where, a long time ago, when the Earl of Moray was looking for someone to spend the night at Castle Stuart to prove to everyone that is was not haunted - he asked the minister at Petty Church to offer a £20 reward.

The local poacher, known as Big Angus, was neither afraid of man nor beast and he's recorded to have spent the night in this room.

The next morning, unfortunately they found his body in the courtyard, dead, with a look of horror frozen on his face.

The mystery remains - did he jump or was he pushed?

Too much whisky? Are you brave enough to stay…?

 

The Drawing Room

Paneled in oak with grand piano and harp and boasting an open fireplace large enough to roast an ox, the Drawing Room is, like the rest of the Castle, furnished for comfort and relaxation.

 

The Billiard Room

Billiards was Mary Queen of Scots' favourite game, although the knights in suits of armour never played at this table! If you are an Inspector Clouseau or Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, can you find the secret revolving door to the Drawing Room? It saves walking the long way to get a dram of whisky from the bar in the Drawing Room.

In fact, the whole castle is full of secret stairways, alcoves, priest-holes and hidden doorways. We have not yet had time to explore them all.

For more information on Highland Weddings in Stuart Castle near Inverness & other Highland Castle Weddings in Scotland - Click here