Field Visit
Date 21 August 1996
Event ID 1109686
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1109686
Coroghon Castle stands on top of a stack at the SE end of the cliffs which form the E end of Canna. The stack juts out into the sea, and is accessible only by a steep path which ascends a narrow neck of land connecting it to the mainland. The castle is traditionally held to have been a prison, used in the late seventeenth century by a jealous husband to confine his wife; Campbell associates this tradition with Donald MacDonald of Clanranald and his wife Marion MacLeod. The castle is illustrated by Pennant at the end of the eighteenth century; it is shown roofless, but still stands several metres in height.
The surviving portion of the castle occupies the NW angle of the stack's summit, overlooking the approach from the mainland. Built of random rubble, natural rock-faces have been incorporated into its structure to form the walls of internal compartments. A narrow doorway with a dressed stone lintel in its N wall gave access to a small antechamber, and a bar-hole 1.1m deep is visible on its W side. To the rear of this antechamber, opposite the entrance, a series of four rock-cut steps provided access to the upper floor, which comprised two main rooms. The first was directly above and was subdivided into two smaller chambers by a partition wall; at some stage, the northern of the two chambers appears to have been roofed independently, and traces of its pitched roof-line can still be seen on the E face of the main surviving internal wall. The second room on the upper floor, which is the larger, lies on the W and was entered by a gap at the S end of the main internal wall. There are five narrow openings through its N and W walls, all of which are at slightly different heights. A cellar of narrower dimensions lies below this room and has two openings, one in the N wall and one in the W. It is unclear how access was gained to the cellar but it may have been by a trapdoor in the floor of the main upper room.
Little evidence of any other features are visible on the stack, but, given the presence of other forts and duns on the island, it is inconceivable that this impregnable position was not fortified at an earlier date.
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 21 August 1996
T Pennant 1790; J L Campbell 1984.
