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How are you feeling? Anything starting to hurt? Not Yet? Give it a few more miles! 😉
You’re near Helmsdale (Scots: Helmsdal, Scottish Gaelic: Bun Ilidh), today the name Helmsdale is synonymous with salmon fishing, but the town and its picturesque harbour originally prospered as a result of the herring boom of the 19th century.
After crossing the Helmsdale River, you’ll see Helmsdale Castle Monument which has some historical significance. It was at Helmsdale Castle that in 1567 Isobel Sinclair, the Earl’s aunt, poisoned John, the 11th Earl of Sutherland and his wife to try and make her own son Earl. She also tried to poison Alexander, the Earl’s heir, but the cup of poison was drunk by her own son, who died two days later, and Alexander survived. She killed herself before being executed in Edinburgh. The whole affair was apparently a plot hatched by George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness so he could seize the Sutherland earldom.
The property later passed to the Gordons. The castle was ruined by 1858, and was sadly removed in the 1970s when the A9 was realigned with a new bridge. A stone by the car park commemorates the castle.
A few miles after the castle, you can spot Cairns Liath, an Iron Age broch on the eastern shore of the Scottish Highlands. And the Dunrobin Castle & Gardens.
The Castle, which resembles a French château with its towering conical spires, has seen the architectural influences of Sir Charles Barry, who designed London’s Houses of Parliament, and Scotland’s own Sir Robert Lorimer (Pictured). The Castle was used as a naval hospital during the First World War and as a boys’ boarding school from 1965 to 1972.
Enjoy the next miles before your next milestone!
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