Archaeology Notes

Event ID 698025

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/698025

NR95SW 1 93314 50675

NR 9332 5066. Castle (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map (1924)

Lochranza Castle is now ruinous; in the main it is three storeys and an attic in height, with the S wing two storeys higher. The original castle was a late 13th-early 14th c oblong hall-house of two main storeys having a small square tower projecting from its SW corner. Much of this early work remains, but its present appearance derives mainly from a thorough reconstruction carried out in the late 16th c when the upper works were renewed and heightened and the interior remodelled.

It was possibly erected by a member of the Stewart family of Menteith (J Dunbar 1973); it was occupied in 1614 by troops of James VI, and later that century by Cromwell's forces.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889; S Cruden 1960; N Tranter 1970.

Lochranza Castle (DoE nameplate) is as described in the previous information.

Visited by OS (BS) 6 December 1977