Craig Castle Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Cache is a small plastic tub. Best to park at waypoint supplied for parking. There is a signpost for walk aprox 60 m away pointing to shore. Best to walk along side and bottom of field to get to cache. I'm not sure if the structure is safe so I wouldn't advise going into it.
I spotted this castle when doing the caches across the Cromarty Firth at Kiltearn point and went to investigate what the building was that I could see. Once I found it, thought this would be an interesting spot for a cache.
The remains of Craig Castle/Castlecraig, a 16th-century fortified tower, are perched on a rocky outcrop, on the shores of the Cromarty Firth. Naturally protected on three sides by steep drops to the shore, the tower would have originally been fortified on its landward side by battlements and round towers. The four-storey tower contains gunloops (openings for canon), fashionable at the time of building but possibly not very effective – perhaps they simply looked threatening from the outside!
The tower has vaulted floors which still survive and there are the remains of a large fireplace on the ground floor. A wing probably extended to the northwest but this has fallen to ruin.
The tower was probably built for the Urquharts of Cromarty. They held the hereditary sherrifdom of Cromarty and Craig Castle marks the western boundary of that sherrifdom. Nearby Cullicudden Burial Ground contains a burial enclosure of the family. Other fortified houses on the Black Isle belonging to the Urquharts included Kinbeachie Castle and Cromarty Castle but very little of these buildings remain today.
In the post-Reformation period, Craig Castle became associated with the Bishops of Ross who may have used it as a place of summer residence. It eventually became part of the Newhall Estate who gifted it to a descendent of the Urquhart family in 1959.
When I placed this cache, I discovered something very special and rare close by. Hopefully you will as well but please DO NOT post the details of what it is in your listing if you do discover it.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nyarffsreel, Arjunyy Cbvag, Penvtgba????