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Muness Castle
Street address: Unst, Shetland ZE2 9ED, Scotland, United Kingdom
Mailing address: Skara Brae Prehistoric Village, Sandwick, Stromness, Orkney KW16 3LR, Scotland, United Kingdom
Telephone: 44 (0) 1856 841815
Fax: 44 (0) 1856 841885
E-mail:
Website: http:/
Proprietor: Historic Scotland
Contact: Ann Marwick District Visitors' Services Manager
Opening hours: Apr-Sep: 9.30am-6.30pm daily; Oct-Mar: 9.30am-4.30pm daily
Admission: Free of charge
Accessibility: Partial disabled access
Muness Castle is the northernmost castle in the British Isles. Located in the south east corner of Unst, Shetland's most northerly inhabited island, it was built in 1598 by Laurence Bruce, half brother of Robert Stewart 1st Earl of Orkney.
The castle was contemporaneous with the Earl's Palace in Kirkwall and Scalloway Castle, both built for Earl Robert's son and successor Patrick. A late 16th-century tower house with circular towers at diagonally opposite corners, it was (like Scalloway Castle) designed by Andrew Crawford.
Muness Castle was attacked and burned by the French in 1627, and subsequently fell into disuse. Briefly rented to the Dutch East India Company in 1713, it was sold in 1718 but abandoned by its new owners before 1750. The ruin is now in the care of Historic Scotland.
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