When the Earl of Caithness, the chief suspect, took possession of the surviving boy-heir, the Earl Alexander, the walls of Dornoch shook.

When the Murrays of Dornoch, allied with the Gordons, snatched the young Earl Alexander from Dunrobin Castle where he was being held, the northern heather was set ablaze. The Clans marched, and for Dornoch Castle there began four centuries of ruin and restoration.

During the terrible siege of 1570 all records of the Castle - or Palace - were destroyed, so that its earlier history is uncertain except for what can be traced in other documents and through legend. Some authorities think that the Palace was originally built in the 14th century and rebuilt and added to in the 16th century. The vaulted dungeons below the Tower would have been part of the original construction.

The Castle is almost certainly on the site of the original Bishop's Palace of St Gilbert, who founded the Cathedral in the early 13th century. In 1557 the Palace was given to the Earl of Sutherland by his brother-in-law, Bishop Robert Stewart.

The present Tower and the Tower of the Cathedral were the only two strong points to hold out during the siege of 1570. The only other surviving portion of the Castle is the big chimney - the Bishop's Chimney - adjoining the Tower which was the kitchen chimney in the Bishop's Palace.

During the following centuries the Castle went from ruin to repair and ruin again and by 1800 the ruinous Castle had become a nuisance to the town planners of the day. The Council decided they needed a new market place and wider streets, proper schools premises and above all a better Courthouse and Jail were a necessity.

In 1812 the new work began and the centre of Dornoch as it stands today with wide, clean attractive squares and places was created. The residential part of the Castle was pulled down to make way for the present Courthouse and Public Buildings, however there was a hitch in acquiring some of the old houses nearby, so the Jail and Courthouse were not built until 1850.

In the meantime, the Castle Tower, with its spiral stone staircase, was re-roofed, and hurriedly turned into the Courthouse and Jail.

A new building was erected over the vaulted kitchens, next to the great Bishop's Chimney, and became the schoolhouse.

The Castle appears to have been free from the taint of witchcraft which had caused concern locally. The Witch of Assynt, who flew from Assynt on her broomstick and lighted on the Cathedral Tower in the early 17th century, left the Castle strictly alone.

Fortunately, the Castle was unconnected with the last public burning in Scotland of a witch. She was a hapless old woman, Janet Home, who was charged in 1722 with transforming her daughter into a pony to ride to the witches' meeting place, and having her shod by the Devil. She was paraded through the High Street past the Castle and burned in a barrel of tar some hundred of yards away near the sea.

But the Castle does seem at one time to have had a quite harmless ghost - an unhappy sheep stealer by the name of Andrew McCornish who was imprisoned in the dungeons below the Tower.

He was reputedly seen by the Minister of Avoch towards the end of the last century. After the Castle ceased to be a Jail, it was the Sheriff's residence for a time. Miss Marion MacKenzie, daughter of Sheriff Mackenzie who was Sheriff Substitute for over 50 years until he retired, lived in the castle until 1912.

The Castle passed into private hands in 1922 and the new owner took the precaution of having the Castle exorcised. This must be wearing off as we have had several sightings in the last 5 years.
When some old pipes were being dug up in the Castle area near where the hanging is supposed to have taken place, some bones were found, believed to be those of the Covenanter.

Also found were some pieces of church plate which are now in a museum in Edinburgh. Tradition has it that during the troubles of the Reformation, the Cathedral clergy hid the valuables in the Church, including a plate of pure gold, in a secret underground passage which connected the Castle and Cathedral.

They then sealed and concealed both ends of the passage. From this has grown the legend that when the golden plate and the Church treasure is found, the end will be at hand for the present House of Sutherland. Needless to say, no serious effort has been made to find the tunnel and Sutherland line seems safe from threat at least.