Dunrobin Castle

Position: 57°58’53″N 3°56’41″W

The Sutherlands seem like a bloodthirsty lot. Or at least they were. At the turn of the 19^th century they were also the wealthiest landowners in Britain. Eclipsing even Queen Victoria. One of the better-known Scottish clans, the Sutherlands served king, queen, and country for more than 800 years.

A canny bunch, they lived off the backs of their impoverished tenant farmers whose subsistence lives were simply wretched. Yet, once the first Duke and Duchess[1] did the math and found sheep’s wool more profitable than rents, they began moving the crofters out. For many of the poor, emigration to the colonies soon followed. The entire bowdlerised history is proudly displayed in the baronial pile known as Dunrobin Castle.

Portraits

Teetering high on a bluff overlooking the North Sea, the Firth of Cromarty to the south and Norway some 500 kilometres to the east, the castle demands at least an ooh, and perhaps an ahh! With its Victorian gothic makeover, Dunrobin’s light grey stone and narrow turrets might serve as an understudy for Neuschwanstein, should Disney and Tinkerbell require a stand in.

Given its nearly new condition, it is no surprise it is a popular stopping point for aging Americans and Germans doing the highland rounds. For only the second time we declared our 60+ birthrights and received, by way of reward, discounted admission.

Climbing the main staircase, you are immediately encircled by portraits, selected perhaps for their size rather than temporal position in the family tree. It is up to the viewer to make linear sense of the long genetic sequence linking the pictures. Around the middle of the 18^th century the familial gene pool appeared rather too small. Long inbreeding led to a weak chin and thin lips that graced both parents and their offspring. Or perhaps the portrait artist unintentionally overemphasized these features in search of flattery.

Elizabeth

Nevertheless, the Sutherland tree successfully branched out and spliced in some fresh, high-class genetic material. Then they engaged the finest portrait painters at the time to show off their mutations. A Gainsborough here, a Reynolds there, even a Raeburn or two. With different artists capturing the same person, one can easily appreciate the subtlety of style and even how each artist engaged the sitter.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (left) gets my ‘best of show nod’ for his portrait of the young Countess Elizabeth, Duchess of Sutherland. He captures her ruthlessness marvellously. Her eyes a shade flintier. Her jaw more firmly set. Her moue just slightly more drawn. As principal estate manager, it fell to her to maximize profits, after all. His competitor, John Hoppner (right), paints a rather more innocent look.

At Elizabeth’s request, the family raised the 93^rdSutherland Highlanders Regiment of Foot in 1799. The regiment travelled widely, killing foreigners and traitors in service to crown and commerce alike. Male heads of household took to dressing smartly in uniforms of royal military blues and reds with shiny brass helmets and buttons to complement their ceremonial swords. Once in costume, off they went to war in places like New Orleans (1815), Balaklava (1854), and Lucknow (1857).

Millie and Georgie

By World War I the incumbent Duchess (née Lady Millicent Fanny St. Clair-Erskine) had taken a less combative stance to war and drove an ambulance for the Allies. One interesting artifact on display was a passport authorising her travel through German lines between Namur and Manbeuge, and on to Boulougne in September 1914. She left the front, but soon returned to duty at field hospitals in northern France. I wonder if she met Carol’s grandfather, Roy Kemble, also a volunteer ambulance driver, when they received their respective Croix de Guerres for their services.

Millie’s son, George, the 5^th Duke of Sutherland, was a good-looking chap – in a Tab Hunter Californian blonde kind of a way. He skipped through his life and marriages without producing a sire. No explanation for this oversight was given. Judging by the sheer square footage of wall space his likeness covers he certainly enjoyed having his portrait painted. Perhaps he liked himself better than his rather beautiful first wife.

The castle remains in family hands, shored up by the occasional sale of artwork from an extensive, and expensive, collection housed in museums around the world.

Murder Most Fowl

Touring the gardens brings you to a gate and a large house. A sign warns you that some people find the contents of the house disturbing, even offensive. Given that endorsement, we couldn’t wait to see what was inside. And then rather wished we hadn’t. The building bulged floor to ceiling with taxidermy beasts of every description.

The late Victorian era was a time of great wealth and exploration. Steam engines shrank journeys from indeterminate months to more predictable weeks. What better way to keep up with the crowned heads of Europe than going to Africa and indiscriminately shooting as many wild animals as you have ammunition for?

Fair little deer, harmlessly giant giraffes, and bluff pachyderms all fell under the hail of Sutherland shot. Every member of the family, according to the wooden plaques, blazed away at the poor creatures on the savanna. Yet, as immediately stomach churning as the shameful collection is, it is modest in comparison to say that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Before his assassination in Sarajevo, the Duke was chided for his excess at having personally slaughtered over 250,000 head of game around the world.

Birds of Prey

Dunrobin’s curtain call was a fine display of falconry. Perhaps the best show of its kind Carol and I have seen. The falconer made a strong argument for catching, training, then employing a raptor to hunt rabbits and grouse. You will, he assured us, keep your family fed through the winter. In a sustainable manner of course.

Training only takes a few weeks. The birds are clever enough to know they’re onto a good thing with the right human. We learned that grouse have plenty of tricks up their sleeve when attacked at 200 miles per hour by a peregrine falcon. When it comes down to it, the peregrine succeeds only 10% of the time. Speed isn’t everything. Sometimes agility wins the day.

If you go…

We recommend staying at the Glenshee Bed and Breakfast in Golspie. Lovely rooms, friendly folks and a hearty full Scottish breakfast.

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[1] Thanks to some clever marriages and massive inherited wealth the historical Sutherland Earldom became part of a new hereditary peerage, the Dukedom of Sutherland, in 1833.