Borve Castle: A Mackay Stronghold in Scotland
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- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Scotland
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
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History
A Mackay Stronghold
Borve Castle is a ruined castle in Scotland, United Kingdom, near Farr in Sutherland. Formerly called the House of Burro and also known as Farr Castle, it served as a stronghold of Clan Mackay, a Highland kinship-based political and military organization. From Borve, the Mackays used the castle as a base for raids against the neighboring Clan Sutherland. The castle may originally have been built by a Norseman named Torquil, although this attribution remains uncertain.
The rivalry between the Mackays and Sutherlands shaped Borve Castle’s sixteenth-century history. After the Mackays failed to appear before Mary of Guise as ordered, John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland and chief of Clan Sutherland, received a commission to destroy the stronghold. Mary of Guise was the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and governed Scotland as Queen Regent while her daughter was a minor.
The Siege of 1554
In August 1554, Mary of Guise hired the private ship Lion to attack Borve Castle. Hugh Kennedy of Girvanmains, described as the Earl’s stepfather or stepbrother, arrived with 50 soldiers and the royal gunner Hans Cochrane, who brought a cannon. A further cannon was also said to have been dragged from Edinburgh.
Rory Mor Mackay, the castle’s captain, was dismayed by the attackers’ artillery because Borve had resisted earlier sieges. The stronghold fell after a short siege and was partly destroyed. John Williamson then garrisoned it for the Queen Regent, while food was supplied from the lands of Helena Sinclair, widow of Donald Mackay of Strathnaver.
Rory Mor Mackay was hanged. In November, Kennedy returned to Edinburgh with Iye Du Mackay, 12th of Strathnaver. Iye Du was imprisoned first in Dumbarton Castle and later in Edinburgh Castle.
The Conflict After Borve’s Capture
Following the capture of Borve Castle, John Mor Mackay gathered a Clan Mackay force and fought Clan Sutherland at the Battle of Garbharry. The Mackays were defeated, and the battle became the last conflict between the two clans.
Sir Robert Gordon, a younger son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, later described the siege in A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland. He called the stronghold Borve, or “Borwe,” and described it as the principal stronghold of the region, less than two miles from Farr. His account states that John Gordon invaded Strathnaver under the Regent’s commission, plundered the territory, and then besieged and captured the castle.
Remains
Borve Castle survives as a ruined castle at Kirtomy Bay, near Farr in Sutherland, within the Highland council area of Scotland. Its surviving identity is that of a castle and stronghold associated with the sixteenth-century Mackay and Sutherland rivalry. The ruin is legally protected as a Scheduled Monument, a nationally protected archaeological or historic site whose preservation is regulated by law.
