Forse Castle (8)
On the death of the last Sir Reginald de Cheyne about the year 1350, Forse passed along with many other properties in Caithness and Aberdeenshire to the elder of his two daughters and co-heiresses, Mariota, who had married as her second husband Sir John de Keith.  Her first marriage to Sir John Douglas produced no children, but by Sir John she had an only son, Andrew Keith, who eventually inherited all her great estates with the exception of Forse which by special agreement between Mariota and her son, was gifted to Andrew’s only sister (whose Christian name in not known) on the occasion of her marriage about 1400 to Kenneth Sutherland of Drummoy, 2nd son of William, 5th Earl of Sutherland. 

There is a tradition, recounted on the Caithness.org website that in the agreement by the Keith family giving the daughter of the house the lands of Forse on her marriage, there was a provision that she could have all the land from Forse Castle inland that she could reach in a day’s ride.  The story goes that she fell off her horse as she reached what are now the hill farms of Tacher and Halsary, which to this day are the innermost extremity of the Forse Estate.  This tradition would account also for the curiously elongated shape of the estate which points like a great cigar deep into the heart of Caithness.  The length from the sea inland is about 15km while in width it varies from about 2.5km at the seashore to 4km at some parts further inland.

The son and heir of Kenneth Sutherland of Drummoy and his (Keith) wife, was John Sutherland, nominally '1st of Forse'.  His son Richard (a rare name in old Scottish genealogies) died c.1471, and his son John, died c.1545.  Canmore state that the castle was built in the 14th or early 15th century, which would make this John, the likely builder.
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