Noltland Castle
Noltland Castle is a ruined Z-plan tower house standing on the island of Westray in Orkney, Scotland. It is one of the most substantial and architecturally impressive castles in Orkney, and its sheer scale relative to the small island on which it sits makes it a striking and somewhat unexpected sight. The castle is a scheduled ancient monument in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and it draws visitors drawn to both its architectural interest and the atmosphere of remote, windswept antiquity that pervades the site. It is often described as one of the finest examples of a Z-plan castle in Scotland, a design in which two towers are placed at diagonally opposite corners of a main rectangular block, allowing defenders to provide covering fire along each face of the building.
The castle's origins lie in the mid-sixteenth century, when construction was begun by Gilbert Balfour, a man of extraordinary ambition and deeply turbulent life. Balfour was Master of the Household to Mary Queen of Scots and was deeply implicated in some of the most violent intrigues of that era. He was involved in the murder of Cardinal David Beaton at St Andrews in 1546 and was later strongly suspected of involvement in the murder of Lord Darnley, Mary's husband, at Kirk o' Field in 1567. Balfour obtained the island of Westray through his marriage to Margaret Livingston and began building Noltland as a statement of power and a place of refuge should his many enemies close in. He never actually completed the castle, however, and eventually fled Scotland altogether, dying in Sweden around 1576 while serving the Swedish king in a plot — reportedly to assassinate the Swedish monarch — a scheme for which he was ultimately executed. The castle later passed through several hands, including those of the Irving family, who continued some building work, before being largely abandoned in the seventeenth century after suffering damage during a conflict.
The most immediately striking feature of the castle as you approach it is its extraordinary number of gunloops. Noltland has more gunloops than any other castle in Scotland — over seventy of them — arranged in rows across the facades in a manner that is almost obsessively martial. The loops are of a distinctive inverted keyhole shape, wide enough to accommodate a range of firearms. Walking around the exterior, the sheer density of these openings gives the walls the feel of something between a fortress and a threat made in stone. The castle stands to a considerable height in places, particularly the main tower, which still retains several floors and part of its vaulting. The interior spiral staircase is notably wide and well-preserved. Entering the castle, the atmosphere is one of solidity and gloom; the thick walls deaden sound from outside, and the light that enters through the narrow loops casts long bars across the stone floors.
The surrounding landscape of Westray amplifies the character of the site considerably. The castle sits in open farmland not far from the village of Pierowall, which is the main settlement on the island and one of the most important Viking-age sites in Orkney. The land around Noltland is low-lying and largely agricultural, with the sea visible in several directions. The wind on Westray is nearly constant and frequently strong, and visiting the castle on a blustery day — which is most days — means hearing the rush of air through the gunloops and across the broken parapets, giving the ruin an eerie, living quality. Nearby, the Bay of Pierowall is a sheltered anchorage that has been used since Norse times, and the village has a shop, a pub, and a small heritage centre. The island also contains the Noup Head lighthouse and important seabird colonies, making it a rewarding destination for naturalists as well as history enthusiasts.
Getting to Noltland Castle requires a journey to Westray itself, which is accessible either by ferry from Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland — a voyage of approximately one and a half hours — or by the short Loganair flight from Kirkwall Airport. Westray is one of the more populated of Orkney's outer islands, and the ferry runs regularly, though services should be checked in advance as they vary by season. From Pierowall, the castle is a short walk or drive, clearly signposted and easy to find. Access to the castle is managed by Historic Environment Scotland; entry is free and the site is generally open during daylight hours, though visitors should check for any temporary closures. The interior can be explored but visitors should exercise care on uneven floors and near unstable masonry. The best times to visit are late spring through early autumn, when the days are very long in this northerly latitude and the weather, while rarely warm, is at its most manageable.
One of the more curious and lesser-known stories connected to Noltland is that during archaeological excavations near the castle, evidence was found of a substantial Bronze Age settlement, demonstrating that this corner of Westray has been attracting human habitation for thousands of years before Gilbert Balfour chose it for his fortress. The site known as the Links of Noltland has yielded remarkable finds including Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts, suggesting layers of occupation stretching back at least five thousand years. Another peculiar detail of the castle itself is that the grand staircase, unusually wide for a Scottish tower house, may have been designed to allow men in armour to pass comfortably abreast — a reflection of the paranoid, military mindset of its builder. Noltland thus stands not merely as a monument to one violent sixteenth-century career, but as a focal point in a landscape of deep and layered human history at the very edge of northern Europe.