Field Visit
Date September 1988
Event ID 1082644
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1082644
The roofless but well-preserved ruin of this castle surmounts a ridge 80m above and 350m W of the Kilmartin Burn, almost opposite the junction of the head of the Kilmartin valley with the narrow pass leading SSW from Loch Ederline and Loch Awe. The castle comprises a tower-and-hall range of integral design incorporating much fine moulded detail. It was built between 1565 and 1572 by John Carswell, Bishop of the Isles and a close associate of Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll, and was partly remodelled in the late 17th century. Wall-footings and stony debris on the rocky knoll a few metres NE of the tower may represent the remains of a medieval dwelling on the site [NM80SW 31], traces of earlier walling possibly extending down the intervening ridge and being incorporated within the fabric of the NE angle of the tower itself.
The walls of the castle are built of lime-mortared random rubble comprising split boulders and slabs of local metamorphic rock. Some external wall-surfaces retain traces of harling but there has been much careful repointing in modern times. The freestone dressings are of a green chlorite schist, usually either stugged or plain with drafted margins. The surviving masonry details are generally well-preserved and of excellent quality, and much of this early Scottish Renaissance decoration bears close comparison with near contemporary work at Torwood Castle, Stirlingshire (en.1).
Like Torwood, Carnassarie is substantially homogeneous in design, although there are indications of earlier work in the lower part of the N wall of the tower and later alterations of a minor nature have been effected throughout, the principal modification being the remodelling of the fenestration of the S frontage in the later 17th century. This work involved converting one of the first-floor hall windows into a doorway which, presumably by means of a timber forestair, gave on to a walled enclosure or garden with an outer arched gateway dated 1681. The ruin was placed in the guardianship of the then Office of Works by the Poltalloch estate in 1932, and a full programme of consolidation has been carried out by the Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate in recent years.
RCAHMS 1992, visited September 1988
[A full architectural description and historical note is provided in RCAHMS 1992, 214-226)
