Kilravock Castle

Kilravock Castle is a composite building constructed between the mid-15th and mid-20th centuries, situated on a steep, southeast-facing slope. The castle incorporates a rubble tower and dovecote, with the remainder of the structure being harled with ashlar margins and dressings.

The core of the castle is a large, square rubble-built keep, dating from around 1460. This features a corbelled and crenellated wallwalk, angle bartizans, a cap house, and a square south angle turret, forming the northeastern arm of a U-plan entrance court. The tower is linked to a long, southeast-facing range built in the 17th century by a square 17th-century stair tower with a ground-floor entrance – now obscured from the exterior by a service passage. A moulded doorpiece, decorated with crude stars and rosettes, leads to a square stairwell rising over three storeys.

The 17th-century mansion itself is three storeys high (with a vaulted ground floor), featuring six irregular bays and angle and centrally located projecting stair turrets; four swept dormers rise through the wallhead. Later wings, built in two phases and of varying height, project to the northwest, completing a rear court. The rear northwest elevation displays a later 18th-century central projecting stair compartment, with a central entrance masked by a small, square, crenellated porch.

A small, sympathetic, three-storey-over-basement single-bay service wing is situated at the southeast angle. A further two-storey, irregular five-bay rubble service range is located at the northeast, linked to the main dwelling by a harled wall with an ashlar cope and a segmental-headed, margined entrance, forming a service court.

A Venetian window from the later 18th century is incorporated into the southwest elevation (drawing room). The building has multi-pane glazing, and a pair of bee boles are located in the base of the mansion on the southeast elevation. Two mural sundials are set at the angles of the main southeast elevation.

The roof is slate, with ridge and end stacks and crowsteps.

Internally, the 15th-century tower retains its original plan form, including a mural wheel stair providing access to four floors and the wallhead walk. A modern chimney piece with a carved quotation replaces the original in the first-floor hall, which features a corbelled and beamed ceiling. The 17th-century range has been remodelled, containing a coved drawing room ceiling and an Adamesque chimney piece. A later 18th-century staircase, with carved balusters, is located within the north entrance wing and entrance hall. The entrance hall also contains a re-sited ornate chimney piece dating from 1662, originally from the first-floor hall in the old tower.

The dovecote is situated at the south corner of the castle and linked by a section of the former barmkin wall. This is a two-stage, 15th/16th-century corner tower, with a stone-seated privy in the ground-floor chamber and a pigeon loft above. The pigeon loft has a door and a small square pitching-eye, formerly fitted with an iron yett. It is topped by a 19th-century shallow pyramidal slate roof, raised at the centre to accommodate flight holes.

The rubble garden wall, with a dressed stone cope and a segmental-headed arched entrance, possibly incorporating sections of the earlier castle barmkin, fronts a 19th-century walled garden.