Lismore, Castle Coeffin. General view from South-West.

Description Lismore, Castle Coeffin. General view from South-West.

Date 1882

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

Catalogue Number AG 1393

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 743171

Scope and Content Castle Coeffin, Lismore, Argyll & Bute, from the west The ruins of Castle Coeffin, strategically sited on a small limestone promontory on the north-west coast of the island of Lismore, command extensive views over Loch Linnhe to the Sound of Mull. The castle, built in the 13th century for the MacDougalls of Lorn, was photographed in 1882 by the Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge. The remains of the castle comprise an oblong hall-house built on the summit of the promontory, and a bailey or defensive wall enclosing the main entrance approach on the north-east side. The house, built of local rubble and beach-boulders, consists of two storeys, with a ground-floor chamber and a principal room, a large hall, on the first floor. Towards the end of the south-east wall, a mural staircase rises from ground- to first-floor level towards a wall-walk, portions of which survive on the south-east and north-west sides of the building. The castle was probably originally covered with a pitched roof rising within the wall-walk. To the south-east is a gently shelving sandy bay which provided a convenient anchorage and landing-place directly under the castle. It also contains a tidal fish-trap of unknown age. This U-shaped structure takes the form of a broad drystone wall laid directly on the sea-bed a little below high-water level. Fish swimming into the U at high tide were trapped behind the wall when the water level receded. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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