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Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 564784
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/564784
Inverlochy Castle, c.12 70-80 Quadrangular castle of enclosure at the mouth of the River Lochy, remarkable for having remained largely unaltered since before the Wars of Independence. It is said to have been built by John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Lochaber and supporter of Edward I. Recently consolidated, the ruin was strategically sited at the entrance to the Great Glen, its bold 13th century form plain to see. Formidable rubble walls, unpierced by openings or evidence of connected buildings, surround a courtyard with corner towers, each containing a mural stair. The largest of these - Comyn's Tower, on the north - west angle - was the donjon, with a garderobe opening off it on the 2nd floor. The principal entrance is on the south, a watergate on the north. Both had portcullises - evidence of these, and of the ditches which surrounded the castle on three sides, fed by the waters of the Lochy from its 4th side, can still be defined. Following Robert the Bruce's succession to the crown in 1306, the Comyns were ousted and the castle fell into decay. After the fall of the Lordship of the Isles, Inverlochy was repaired by the 2nd Earl of Huntly, who garrisoned it in 1505 and received a charter from James IV. Lord Abinger attempted repairs c.1905, restoring loops and battlements.
The tradition that a Pictish castle was succeeded by an important early settlement at Inverlochy is supported by archaeological evidence of earlier structures on the site. According to Boece (1526), a 'city ... much frequented with merchants of France and Spain' was destroyed here by Vikings. Two important battles took place at Inverlochy: in 1431, when the clansmen of the Lords of the Isles defeated James I's much larger army, and in 1645, when Argyll's Covenanters were slaughtered by Montrose's royalist highlanders.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
