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Archaeology Notes
Date 1977
Event ID 696847
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/696847
NS02SW 10 0363 2091.
(NS 0363 2093) Kildonan Castle (NR) (In Ruins).
OS 6" map, (1924)
The ruins of Kildonan Castle stand on a rocky plateau, protected by cliffs on the E, and by a ravine on the N. It measures 28ft 5ins x 22ft. The entrance seems to have been on the ground floor, with a wheel-stair adjoining, in the NE angle. The walls on the ground floor are 6ft thick, but only 4ft 6ins thick on the first floor; both floors are barrel-vaulted. The surviving features of the keep indicate a structure of the Second or Third Periods: (1300-1400 or 1400-1542) but nothing remains to fix its date more definitely. It was the fortress of a branch of the Macdonald clan.
Source: D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92.
NS 0363 2091. The remains of Kildonan Castle (name confirmed) comprise a crumbling rectangular tower 7.9m by 7.0m over walling 1.6m thick at base. The walls, now crudely mortared, survive to the third floor level (in the NE angle), first floor in the north west angle and up to 6.0m high elsewhere. The majority of the vaulted groundfloor roof and the two gun loops are extant. There is no trace of the wheel stairs or entrance.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (T R G) 20 November 1977.
