Field Visit
Date 17 October 1989
Event ID 1102074
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1102074
On an island in Loch of Clunie there is an L-plan tower-house of late 15th- to early 16th-century date. It consists of a main block of three principal storeys and a wing of five. The entrance, which was protected by a high-level machicolation, is in the SE re-entrant angle and opens on to a newel stair. The vaulted ground floor of the main block was originally lit by a series of slit windows and entered from the E; the large kitchen fireplace, and a straight-flighted mural stair in the N wall (for which there is now only external evidence) seem to have provided independent access both to the first-floor hall and to an adjoining chamber in the adjoining wing. In the mid to late 16th century the building was remodelled; additional fireplaces were introduced and pedimented half-dormers were added to the W front. Subsequent alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries included extensive renovations to the upper side-walls of the main block, the blocking of the mural stair from the kitchen, provision of large scale first-floor windows, subdivision of the vaulted basement and remodelling of the fireplaces; a single-storeyed kitchen range was also added on the N.
A survey of the submerged portion of the island indicates that it is probably artificial, and has been enhanced and extended on more than one occasion. The edge of the island is enclosed by the remains of a low rubble wall and on the S there is a small well-constructed quay. According to Myln, at the time when Thomas Lauder was bishop of Dunkeld (1452-1476), robbers were established in the loch and castle of Clunie. They seem to have been forcibly ejected, and work on the tower-house probably began soon after, much of the material probably being derived from the remains of the royal castle on the Hill of Clunie (NO14SW 5). By 1506 the ground-floor vault was in place and a granary seems to have stood immediately to the E. The completion of the tower is attributed by Mylne to Bishop George Brown (1483-1514) and some insight into the building work between 1506 and 1515 is provided by Clunie's, Granitar's and Avenar's accounts in the Dunkeld Rental. These include reference in 1512 to the provision of an outshot (lie tufall) on the W side of the tower, which is probably to be identified with a roof-raggle in the N wall, and in 1512-13 the construction of a new pier (perhaps that at NO 1116 4396).
By 1507 provision had been made on the island for a chapel dedicated to St Catherine and, although this is said to have stood on the N side of the tower where human bones were found in the late 18th century, the first-floor chamber adjoining the hall is more likely to have fulfilled this role.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) 17 October 1989.
Statistical Account (OSA) 1791-3; New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845; OS Name Book; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889; Dunkeld Rentale; MS/646.
