Dunalastair Castle

The great poet chieftain, Alexander Robertson of Struan, a staunch Jacobite, lived in a house called the Hermitage which is thought to have been on the site of or near to the current (ruined) Dunalastair House. The Hermitage was destroyed by fire after the 1745 Jacobite uprising. A double tower house was built on the site in 1801 but was burned down accidentally in 1854. The heavily ornamented Dunalastair House was built in 1862 by General Macdonald, then owner of the estate. It was damaged by fire after World War II and finally abandoned in 1952. The house’s contents were sold in the mid fifties after the current owner’s grandmother’s death and the house was badly vandalised in the sixties when the lead was stolen from the roof.