Almond Castle is a ruined L-plan castle dating from the 15th century. The estate originally belonged to the Crawford family, and they built the castle in about 1470. In about 1540 it passed by marriage to the Livingstones, who built an extension at the south west. They also built an extension along the south east wall in 1586. When James Livingstone was created Baron Livingstone of Almond in 1633 the castle’s name was changed to Almond from Haining. After the Jacobite rising of 1715 the castle was forfeited to the crown by the Livingstone Earls of Callendar. It was abandoned in the 1750s. In 1783 the ruin was sold to William Forbes by the York Buildings Company.
The ruin has a vaulted basement. The hall was on the first floor, while there is a kitchen in the wing. There is a courtyard, with a wall and ditch, enclosing the remains of 16th-century buildings. The castle was four storeys and a garret high. The entrance, on the long south east face, gave access to the first floor.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.