Carbisdale Castle, "Castle of Spite", is situated in a commanding position overlooking the Kyle of Sutherland, Carbisdale Castle lies ½ miles north of Culrain in Easter Ross. The castle was built by the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland between 1906 and 1917. Lady Mary became the second wife of George Granville William Sutherland Leveson Gower, the 3rd Duke and 18th Earl of Sutherland in 1889. When he died in 1892, she was left the bulk of his estate. However the will was disputed by her step-son, the 4th Duke, which resulted in legal action and much bitterness. When the affair was finally settled, the Duchess used her £0.5 million inheritance to build Carbisdale only just outside the new Duke's Sutherland estate in the old county of Ross & Cromarty.

Although probably the newest of Scotland's castles, it is deliberately styled to give the credibility of an older square tower with the impression of a variety of extensions built over the years in contrasting styles and using different stonework.

It is said that the Duchess was determined not to give the new Duke or his family "the time of day" and designed the clock-tower at Caribsdale such that there are only three faces, with none on the side which the Duke could see when he passed on the nearby railway en route to his home at Dunrobin Castle. In return, the Duke would insist that the blinds on that side of his private carriage were closed as he passed.