"It needs to be open to the public, but it also needs to live and the trustees will be looking for the best way to fulfil that twin mission in the years ahead."įormer Caithness provost John Young said: "We have had many happy evenings here in the past when she had what she called her Caithness friends over in the evening. "We don't want it simply to become in aspic, a kind of museum. "Coming here of an evening to be a guest of Queen Elizabeth was great fun and it was a tremendous house, and we want to preserve that feeling. "One of the things that we feel very strongly about, and I think Her Majesty also felt strongly about, is that it has been a wonderfully warm and hospitable home," he said. Lord Thurso said the aim was to have the castle ready so it could be opened to the public in August. Work is now ongoing in a fresh effort to refurbish the building, with its dramatic views over the Pentland Firth. "It was much more of a home than a palace." Lord Thurso said: "It was the only house she owned herself and it was never a Royal residence before that. She owned the property until 1996, when it was handed over to a charitable trust, along with its 2,000 acres of land and a herd of prize-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle. The Queen Mother regularly travelled north to supervise the work, eventually moving in and restoring the ancient name, the Castle of The castle was in need of major repair work after 120mph gales had lifted its lead roof and rolled it up "like a can". "She determined to rescue it, which she did." It is the most beautiful, pretty small castle, very typical of what we had around Caithness in days gone by. "She saw this building and, curious, she came down the drive and found it with the family in one room and, I think, the sheep in the other room," he said. The area's MP Viscount John Thurso explained that the Queen Mother came across the building while visiting a friend in the area while she was in mourning following the death of her husband, King George VI. She became a regular visitor to Caithness after falling in love with a run-down property then known as Barrogill Castle. Her love of the country was nurtured as she spent her childhood summers at Glamis in Angus. She was a regular visitor to the area over several decades, and her status as an honorary Scot was cemented even further in 1990 when she was given the freedom of the county.Īlthough she was born in Hertfordshire, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon came from a family with strong Scottish roots.
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