this looks like the builder started pretty confident and willing, but halfway came to the conclusion that it would take far more time then he initially thought and finished it by taking the quickest route Grrr, Imrahil
This is definitely Scotland. My family on my mother's side was Scottish a couple of generations ago (she still had a "Mc" name before she got married). This picture is more common than you'd think up there. Considering the natural defenses provided by the lake you find these kind of buildings all over the place up there (or on a spit of land extending into a Loch).
I don't know if what was George Orwell or someone else, I read an old commentary from either the 30s or 40s making the observation about Nazi Germany that authoritarian regimes march in a ridiculous way as a sign of power. In a free society, soldiers marching in that fashion would be mocked. The fact that they cannot be mocked in their own society is a sign of power.