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Keiss Castle is perhaps one of the best-known and most visible castles in Caithness lying some 10 miles south of John O’ Groats and 7 miles north of Wick. It occupies one of the most dramatic locations at the top of sheer cliffs overlooking the sea at the Northern end of Sinclair’s Bay.

George, the 5th Earl of Caithness in the late 16th early 17th Century, built Keiss the exact year of its construction not being known. It was reputedly built upon the site of an earlier fortalice called “Raddar” but nothing of this now remains. The castle stood four stories in height plus an attic. Unfortunately the NE angle of the tower, which contained the entrance is gone, as have the upper floors. According to the Rev John Brand the castle was ruinous in 1700, but in 1726 it seems to have been in repair with “at the side of it a convenient house lately built”.