Kinlochaline Castle is a 15th-century Scottish

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

on the Ardtornish estate in

Morvern Morvern, historically also spelt Morven, is a peninsula and traditional district in the Highlands, on the west coast of Scotland. It lies south of the districts of Ardgour and Sunart, and is bounded on the north by Loch Sunart and Glen Tarbert, ...

in the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

council area. It is also known as Caisteal an Ime (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

for ''Castle of Butter'') because a Lady of

Clan MacInnes Clan MacInnes is a Scottish clan originally from the western highlands of Scotland. The origin of clan (MacInnes, McInnes, or in Gaelic: Mhic Aonghais or MacAonghais) is Morvern and Ardgour, Argylshire, with its clan name coming into exis ...

, Dubh Chal (Lady of the Black Veil), is said to have paid the builder with butter equal to the volume of the castle.

History

Kinlochaline Castle is located at the head of

Loch Aline Loch Aline (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Àlainn'') is a small salt water loch home to fish, birds and game, located in Morvern, Lochaber, Scotland. Key features of interest are Kinlochaline Castle, Ardtornish Castle Ardtornish Castle is situated ...

, positioned strategically for coastal defence. Four stories tall, , with walls that are blocks of rare sandstone. The castle was burned in 1644, when it was besieged by Alasdair Mac Colla during the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 B ...

. The castle was attacked by the

Archibald Campbell Archibald Campbell may refer to: Peerage * Archibald Campbell of Lochawe (died before 1394), Scottish peer * Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll (died 1513), Lord Chancellor of Scotland * Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll (c. 1507–1558) ...

, 9th Earl of Argyll in 1679, during a feud. Kinlochaline was abandoned about 1690. Re-construction in the late 1990s was overseen by

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment ...

. The castle is now a residence.

Footnotes

External links

Kinlochaline Castle @ CANMORE
Castles in Highland (council area) Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed castles in Scotland Morvern Tower houses in Scotland {{Scotland-castle-stub