Ardvreck Castle, Loch Assynt

Let's not talk about the weather other than to say a) it's been a great year for bog cotton and b) it's no wonder that so many old Scottish paintings depict drookit highland cattle standing before mist shrouded mountains.

To escape the mizzle, we drove back up through the clouds to Lochinver to look round the Highland Stoneware factory; something we could have done in their factory in Ullapool, but I was mistaken in thinking there might be seconds available in their prime factory at a price that wouldn't break the bank...... wrong of course.

On the way we stopped to take photos of the ruins of Ardvreck Castle standing on a promontory by the shore of Loch Assynt.

It was built about 1490 by the McLeods of Assynt, but was attacked and captured by the Clan Mackenzie in 1672, who built Calda House, a large manor house nearby in 1676.
This house was reduced to a shell by a fire in 1737. It is said it was a manifestation of divine wrath because a party organised by the MacKenzies on a Saturday overran to the Sabbath, the Lord's Holy Day.

More probably it was a deliberate act by MacKenzie supporters who feared that it was about to be sold to their enemies, the followers of the Earl of Sutherland, and wanted to prevent that happening.

Human behaviour never changes.