Some interest has been expressed in the Sinclair Castle at Dounreay which
now sits
(somewhat forlornly) in the middle of the giant nuclear power complex.
As far as I can gather from the St Clairs of the Isles it belonged to a
George Sinclair
who was a brother of Richard Sinclair of Brims and the son of William
Sinclair of Dunbeath
The Sinclairs of Dunbeath are known to have held lands in Lybster, Dounreay and
Barrock.
Earlier, it had belonged to a Henry Sinclair who was a 'natural' son of
John, the Master
of Caithness who is said to have been a brother of the Earl of Caithness
which I do not
think is correct because the "master" is usually a son of rather than a
brother.
Henry died in 1612.
The confusion about the ownership gives some indication of how closely
linked the
various Sinclair families were during the 17th and 18th Centuries when 80%
of the
County of Caithness belonged to 17 branches of the family who, to use my
favourite
phrase, were 'inextricably interwoven with eachother' and, in order to
maintain their hold
on their 'tribal territory' , they built their rugged castles on
practically every promontory.
Rory, who was visiting us from Canada when we were filming, said "What
other Clan
has so many Castles?". The answer was: "None". Nor are our Castles limited to
Scotland. The Sinclairs were the Governors of Colchester, Rochester and
Dover Castles
in England and of Bergen Castle in Norway and, of course, we take our name from
Castle St Clair-sur-Epte in Normandy.
Niven Sinclair
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