Castle Stalker. Distant view from East.

Description Castle Stalker. Distant view from East.

Date 1882

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number AG 1397

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 740739

Scope and Content Castle Stalker, Argyll & Bute Castle Stalker, a 16th-century fortified house, stands on a rocky islet known as Eilean an Stalcaire at the mouth of Loch Laich, separated from the mainland of Appin by a shallow stretch of water. This photograph, looking across the great expanse of Loch Linnhe to the mountains of Morvern in the west, was taken in 1882 by the Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge. The castle, built c.1541 in order to guard the Appin coast, is a four-storeyed tower-house with plain walls, randomly penetrated by only a few windows, and with gun-loops positioned at the eaves directly above the two entrance doorways. By the 1880s, when this photograph was taken, it was roofless. Castle Stalker was an early residence of the Stewarts of Appin who, as descendants of the former Stewart lords of Lorn, acquired extensive rights and possessions in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Eilean an Stalcaire, which in Gaelic means 'Hunter's Island', was granted to Duncan Stewart in 1501, but the castle itself seems not to have been built until the time of Duncan's son, Alan, who succeeded to the estate in 1513. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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