Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
🏰 Subscribe to The Antiquary Magazine:
đź“– UK: https://theantiquary.online/product/the-antiquary-history-magazine-subscription/
🌍 International: https://theantiquary.online/product/monthly-history-magazine-subscription-international-shipping/
đź’» Digital: https://theantiquary.online/product/monthly-history-magazine-subscription-digital/
Every summer, King Charles III travels to the very top of mainland Britain to stay at the Castle of Mey — the small, turreted castle in Caithness that once belonged to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Behind its romantic turrets lies a much darker history than most visitors realise: a story of fratricide within the Sinclair family, followed by decades of decline that left the castle on the edge of dereliction by the 1950s.
In this video we trace the Castle of Mey from its origins as a stronghold of the Sinclair Earls of Caithness, through the family feud that saw one brother killed by another, its slow decline through the 19th and 20th centuries, and its rescue by the newly widowed Queen Mother in 1952. We then walk room by room through the castle as she left it — from the Library and the Drawing Room to her modest private quarters in the sixteenth-century tower — before finishing in the walled garden she loved so much.
Chapters / timings
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Location above the Pentland Firth
01:32 Built for the Sinclairs of Caithness
02:15 A family feud and fratricide
03:30 Barrogill Castle: the 18th and 19th centuries
04:23 The end of the Sinclair era
05:01 Twentieth Century Decline
06:16 Death of George VI and a search for purpose
07:31 The Queen Mother's restoration, 1952–1955 and that of William Burn in 1819.
09:27 A private, domestic retreat
10:11 The Staircase Hall
11:21 The Library
11:57 The Equerry's Room
12:18 The Drawing Room
14:01 The Dining Room
14:36 The Queen Mother's private quarters
15:38 The gardens and the Great Wall of Mey
17:00 Legacy — and King Charles III today
#CastleOfMey #QueenMother #KingCharlesIII #ScottishCastles #royalhistory
Castle of Mey, Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, King Charles III, Caithness, Barrogill Castle, Scottish castles, Sinclair Earls of Caithness, Castle Girnigoe, Pentland Firth, John O'Groats, Scottish tower house, royal residences, British royal family history, Clarence House, Scottish Reformation, Hew Lorimer, William Burn architect, royal Scotland, Thurso, Orkney, royal history documentary
🏰 Subscribe to The Antiquary Magazine:
đź“– UK: https://theantiquary.online/product/the-antiquary-history-magazine-subscription/
🌍 International: https://theantiquary.online/product/monthly-history-magazine-subscription-international-shipping/
đź’» Digital: https://theantiquary.online/product/monthly-history-magazine-subscription-digital/
Every summer, King Charles III travels to the very top of mainland Britain to stay at the Castle of Mey — the small, turreted castle in Caithness that once belonged to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Behind its romantic turrets lies a much darker history than most visitors realise: a story of fratricide within the Sinclair family, followed by decades of decline that left the castle on the edge of dereliction by the 1950s.
In this video we trace the Castle of Mey from its origins as a stronghold of the Sinclair Earls of Caithness, through the family feud that saw one brother killed by another, its slow decline through the 19th and 20th centuries, and its rescue by the newly widowed Queen Mother in 1952. We then walk room by room through the castle as she left it — from the Library and the Drawing Room to her modest private quarters in the sixteenth-century tower — before finishing in the walled garden she loved so much.
Chapters / timings
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Location above the Pentland Firth
01:32 Built for the Sinclairs of Caithness
02:15 A family feud and fratricide
03:30 Barrogill Castle: the 18th and 19th centuries
04:23 The end of the Sinclair era
05:01 Twentieth Century Decline
06:16 Death of George VI and a search for purpose
07:31 The Queen Mother's restoration, 1952–1955 and that of William Burn in 1819.
09:27 A private, domestic retreat
10:11 The Staircase Hall
11:21 The Library
11:57 The Equerry's Room
12:18 The Drawing Room
14:01 The Dining Room
14:36 The Queen Mother's private quarters
15:38 The gardens and the Great Wall of Mey
17:00 Legacy — and King Charles III today
#CastleOfMey #QueenMother #KingCharlesIII #ScottishCastles #royalhistory
Castle of Mey, Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, King Charles III, Caithness, Barrogill Castle, Scottish castles, Sinclair Earls of Caithness, Castle Girnigoe, Pentland Firth, John O'Groats, Scottish tower house, royal residences, British royal family history, Clarence House, Scottish Reformation, Hew Lorimer, William Burn architect, royal Scotland, Thurso, Orkney, royal history documentary
