Archaeology Notes
Event ID 725163
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/725163
NX05SW 3 00379 53391
(NX 0037 5339) Dunskey Castle (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6" map (1957)
Dunskey Castle occupies a promontory, probably fortified from the earliest times, jutting out into the sea and partly cut off from the mainland by a deep ditch which may be partly natural (R C Reid 1939). Behind this, the walls of the castle are built right across the rock to the cliff edge on either side. It is L-shaped on plan, with 5' thick walls, and is now a rough roofless shell. At the cliff's W edge, there is the foundation of a stone building c.23' square, probably the remains of a watch tower overlooking the sea. There is also a fragment of walling running W of the SW angle of the main building, which would no doubt be part of an annexe.
There appears to have been a castle of Dunskey from very early times, though the present building probably dates to the early 16th century, when the preceding castle was burnt. Symson describes the castle as wholly ruinous, in 1684.
W Macfarlane 1908; RCAHMS 1912, visited 1911.
The remains of this castle are generally as described by RCAHMS except that the "watch tower" is at the east edge of the cliffs. A grassy scarp, 1.0m high running NW across the promontory from the SW corner of the "watch tower" probably indicates the course of a cross-wall.
Revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 1 September 1970
Dunskey Castle, an L-plan tower-house with a stair-tower in the re- entrant angle and a gallery-wing on the NE, stands on a sheer-sided coastal promontory, which is separated from the mainland by a substantial rock-cut ditch (15m wide and 2.5m deep). The tower-house has three principal storeys and measures 30m by 14.3m overall; traces of an adjoining range at the S angle probably included a bakehouse. The promontory (36.5m by 30m) is enclosed by a wall-face (up to 3.8m high ), and on the SW there are the probable remains of a watch-tower.
The tower-house dates to the 16th century and may occupy the site of an earlier castle which is on record in the 14th century.
F Grose 1789-91; NSA 1845; W M'llwraith 1875; G Chalmers 1887-1902; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; A Agnew 1893; P H M'Kerlie 1906; W Macfarlane 1906-8; RCAHMS 1912; R C Reid 1938; H Dixon 1977; RCAHMS 1985, visited September 1984.
