Dubh Loch, Glen Shira
Castle (Medieval)
Site Name Dubh Loch, Glen Shira
Classification Castle (Medieval)
Canmore ID 23638
Site Number NN11SW 5
NGR NN 1136 1074
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23638
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Inveraray
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NN11SW 5 1136 1074.
(NN 1136 1074) Castle (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, Argyll, 2nd ed., (1900)
This castle was situated on the point of a low promontory. Its site is marked by a low grassy mound, 6' - 7' high and oval in shape, c. 70' x 50'. There are traces of what may be associated walling. Odd stones outcrop above the turf, and can be felt everywhere with a probe. No built faces are visigle, and there are no traces of mortar. The mound lies to the SE of the complex, giving an impression of having been a main building and courtyard; the entire mound could be nothing more than collapsed stonework. Stone can be felt with a probe under the surrounding turf of the rest of the promontory, and there is the possibility of a causeway or paved area here, but the site may have been at least partly surrounded by water when the buildings were in use.
This castle is not in a defensive position, and may represent a secondary seat rather than an important one. This may be a reason for the scarcity of records concerning it. Traditionally, it was built in the mid-14th century, and was abandoned about the mid-16th century as a result of an outbreak of plague.
Those who died of plague were buried at Bruach-nan-Uaighean, the Bank of Graves, near the castle. This was not located by Campbell and Sandeman (1964).
H B Millar 1964; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
An amorphous area of grass-covered mounds, generally as described. The site is surrounded by marshy ground, but no causeway was found. The "Bank of Graves" was not located.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (D W R) 8 March 1973.
Dubh Loch Castle.
No longer exists.
Field Visit (April 1984)
The traditional site of a stronghold of the MacNaughton family occupies a low oval mound in a triangular area of low lying ground on the S shore of the tidal Dubh Loch, about200m NNW of the Dubh Loch bridge (No. 263). This area is still inundated at spring tides, and 18th-century estate-maps (en.1) appear to show it completely insulated; a particularly marshy hollow lies to the W, at the foot of the higher terrace on which the estate road runs. The straight river-bank to the SE was probably formed in the mid or late 18th century when the outflow of the loch into the Gearr Abhainn river was widened. It was perhaps this insulated area, rather than the crannog immediately offshore to the NE (No. 140), that was named on Pont's manuscript map of about 1590 (en.2) as 'Ylendow' (‘black island').
The mound is about 25m in maximum length and 3m in height. On the S it slopes evenly down from the summit area, which is no more than 5m wide, whereas to the W there is a lower platform which has been disturbed by a dumbbell-shaped excavation of recent origin, possibly a military training-trench. On the N and W there is an outer bank about 1.6m in width and 1m in maximum height, which probably served as a barrier against floodwater and may formerly have been continuous with a similar length of bank to the E. A circular disturbance on the summit may mark the former position of a flagpole or gun-emplacement, and the most probable site for an early building is on the intermediate platform to the W rather than on the summit itself. There are no remains of masonry, although it is reported that probing has identified much ·stonework below the turf (en.3).
The existence of a MacNaughton castle beside the Dubh Loch was first recorded in 1843, while Lord Archibald Campbell subsequently collected the tradition that it was demolished and abandoned in favour of Dunderave Castle (No. 126) following a plague (en.4*). Pont's map (supra) shows 'Ylendow' as an occupied site, but it is not mentioned in a somewhat later description of fishing expeditions by the 7th Earl of Argyll to the Dubh Loch (en.5). The existing remains are too amorphous for their antiquity and original character to be ascertained, and it is possible that the mound underwent various modifications in connection with fishing or wild fowling, in addition to the recent disturbances described above. A plan of the Inveraray policies about 1720 shows an ambitious formal garden in the Deer Park, which includes a pavilion on the island, and although this scheme was never executed, a plan of the Deer Park in 1747 marks the position of the mound by a circle, perhaps indicating an intention to adapt it at that period (en.6)
RCAHMS 1992, visited April 1984
Measured Survey (1984)
RCAHMS surveyed Dubh Loch Castle, Glen Shira in 1984 with plane-table and alidade producing a site plan at a scale of 1:400. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:1000 (RCAHMS 1992, 262A).
