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Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 566868
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/566868
Ardtornish Castle, late 13 th century Ruined stump of one of the principal residences of the Lords of the Isles, heirs of Somerled, who controlled the Western Seaboard until the late 15th century (see p.91 for more on its history). Prominently sited on a headland projecting into the Sound of Mull, this curtain walled stronghold contained a semi-fortified two-storey hall house of dressed basalt blocks, with a mural stair rising from its entrance in the east wall to give access to the hall above. The ruin was crudely consolidated in the early 1900s, when fairly extensive intervention included a refacing of most of the east wall and upper half of the south wall, where a segmental-arched window was introduced. A new entrance doorway was created in the original opening. Only the cills of original slit windows on the south wall survive, and a passage leading to a projecting garderobe on the north-west corner. Vestigial remains of outbuildings lie scattered about the site.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
