📌 Freswick, Highland
★★★
Bucholly is one of the most dramatic, yet least visited, of Caithness’s castles, precariously sited on a rocky promontory which looks like it could be permanently cut off from the mainland after a few more easterly storms. Formerly known as Castle Geo after the narrow inlets characterising the nearby coastline, it became Bucholly Castle as a reference to the Aberdeenshire family who refortified it in the 1400’s – the Mowats of Balquholly. There are no signposts and only hints of a path from the nearest road, but access to the vicinity is straightforward enough with a good map (or the directions given below). Access to the castle itself is another matter, and we don’t recommend it (nor have we tried it) – the headland in front of the gatehouse tapers to an extremely narrow point where a makeshift moat / ditch probably used to be, with unstable cliffs on either side of a bad step up to the entrance.
🌍 Location
📌 Access from A99 1 mi south of Freswick
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: ND 382658
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 58.576012,-3.064470
🚌 Bus stops on A99 at Freswick House turnoff (1 mi)
🚗 Layby at 🧭 ND 375653 / 🛰️ 58.571454,-3.075847 (0.5 mi)
📝 Key info
⌚ Always viewable
🎫 Free
💬 From the layby it’s a 20-min walk (each way) to the castle (⬤ Easy). Follow the A99 verge north for 500m, passing three buildings. A gate on the right at 🧭 ND 377658 / 🛰️ 58.575390,-3.072364 gives access to a field, with an intermittent path following the field boundary east to the coast. Follow the clifftop northeast a short distance to get good views of the castle. Access to the castle itself is very dangerous and not recommended.
