Clan Sinclair - Old Keiss Castle - Framed & Mounted Photo Print

Old Keiss Castle clings to the clifftop above the Caithness coast a few miles north of Wick, one of many Sinclair strongholds that once lined the most northerly reaches of the Scottish mainland. The Sinclairs held the Earldom of Caithness for several centuries, and the Keiss branch played a decisive role in the clan's most turbulent episode. In 1679, when the Campbell chief of Glenorchy claimed the earldom by acquiring the debts of the sixth Earl, it was George Sinclair of Keiss who led the clan's resistance at the Battle of Altimarlech, even though the Sinclairs were heavily defeated that day and the earldom was temporarily lost. The family recovered the Caithness title in 1681, but the old castle was eventually abandoned in favour of a new Keiss house built in 1755, leaving the clifftop ruin to weather above the sea. Photographer Aly Wight captured Old Keiss as part of the Clanscape series on Sinclair heritage in the far north.

If the name Sinclair belongs to your family, these cliffs above the North Sea were once your clan's front door.