Scotland Castle Tours, guided tours to Scotland's Castles.
Photograph the Castles of Scotland from the Borders to
the Highlands, travel through the dramatic landscape and
visit the historic sites. See
Scotland Tours for details.
Castles of Scotland - Ardvreck Castle. The pastel colours
in this picture of Ardvreck Castle are accentuated by
the soft light of early morning . It is in complete contrast
to the dark brooding drama which the earlier picture of
Ardvreck Castle shows.This is one of my favourite landscapes
in this first edition of the site , it is so soft and
peaceful I feel I am sitting on the shores of Loch Assynt
when I view it. The castle sits in the shadow of Quinag
or cuinneag in Gaelic , meaning water spout.
The views from the top of Quinag over Assynt are stunning
, a glorious vista of mountains , lochans and sea and
a sky which lasts forever. There seems no end to the vastness
of this land, a feeling of never ending space, I think
this is why I love it so much.
Nearby Inchnadamph National Nature Reserve is famous
for the limestone caves where animal bones including those
of, brown bear, reindeer and lynx have been found. This
suggests that the caves may have been home to man at the
end of the last Ice Age.
I touched briefly on the history of the castle in the
earlier photograph and mentioned the battle of Carbisdale,
but there has been a battle in more recent times which
was won by the Crofters of Assynt.
This modern day battle was fought in 1992 by the crofters
in the area, when the Scandinavian Property company which
had bought the North Lochinver Estate from the Vestey
family went into liquidation. When the Estate was sold
to the Swedish land speculators in 1989, the interests
of the people who lived and worked on the land were never
considered.
At a public meeting the crofters decided to try and raise
the money to bid for the Estate and win back the land
of their forefathers. Donations came from all parts of
the world and with help from various Public Agencies a
deal was agreed in December of 1992 .
An historic and remarkable victory !
The Assynt Crofters ' Trust took title to the land on
the 1st of February 1993
