- Type
- Ruin
- Origins
- 1590 · 16th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Scotland, United Kingdom
- Commissioned by
- Clan MacLeod
- Coordinates
- 58.1670°, -4.9956°
History
The castle on a rocky spit jutting into Loch Assynt in Sutherland was built by the MacLeods of Assynt, probably around 1590. It was a small three-storey tower house with a stair turret carried out on corbels. Its most famous moment came in 1650: after his defeat at Carbisdale the royalist commander James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, sought refuge here, but Neil MacLeod of Assynt handed him over to the Covenanters and the marquess was executed in Edinburgh. In 1672 the Mackenzies of Seaforth besieged and took the castle and with it the lands of Assynt. In 1726 they built a more comfortable house, Calda House, next to it; it burned down in 1737, and both buildings have been crumbling ever since.
What to see
What remains are fragments of the tower walls and vaulted cellars, partly collapsed, on a grassy promontory joined to the shore by a narrow neck that can flood at high water. The ruin lies right beside the A837 from Lairg to Lochinver, and a short path leads to it and to the nearby shell of Calda House. Set against the Assynt mountains, it is one of the most photographed views in the Highlands.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q2552418
Popularity: articles about this site in 15 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).