Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Noltland Castle on visit to island of Westray on the Orkney Islands. In 1560, Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, granted the lands of Noltland to his brother-in-law Gilbert Balfour, who built the castle. Balfour was Master of the Royal Household to Mary, Queen of Scots, and was involved in the plot to kill her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. After Mary's deposition and exile, he continued to support the queen. Noltland was seized by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, an opponent of Mary's supporters, but he was forced to hand it back to Balfour in the early 1570s. Balfour was executed in Sweden in 1576, and, in 1598, the castle was again seized by the Earl of Orkney, now Patrick Stewart, son of Robert. By 1606, the castle had been restored to the Balfours once more, when it was sold to Sir John Arnot, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who later became Sheriff of Orkney. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1650, Royalist officers occupied the castle after their defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale. Local Covenanters captured and burned the castle. By 1881, it was described as a ruin.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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