Lochnaw Castle is a 16th-century

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 ...

five miles from the town of

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of L ...

, in the historical county of

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has f ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The spectacularly located "castle" incorporates a fortalice torhous. The "central" square tower 5 stories high formed part of the "New" Castle. Lochnaw

Lochnaw Castle shows four periods of construction – a simple 16th-century keep, 17th- and 18th-century domestic dwellings, and a mansion-house, which was later demolished. There is a plaque bearing the date 1486, on the SE wall of the keep. A chapel, built in 1704, was demolished c. 1953. An earlier, ruined castle stands on an island in the nearby Lochnaw Loch. A royal castle, this was given to the Agnews in 1363, but was sacked by

Archibald The Grim, 3rd Earl of Douglas Archibald Douglas, Earl of Douglas and Wigtown, Lord of Galloway, Douglas and Bothwell (c. 1330 – c. 24 December 1400), called Archibald the Grim or Black Archibald, was a late medieval Scottish nobleman. Archibald was the bastard son of S ...

in 1390, and subsequently dismantled.''Castles of the Clans'', Martin Coventry The Agnews held the new castle until the end of the 20th century. The castle, located by the loch, is occupied as a private residence.

References

External links

Gazetteer for Scotland entry on Lochnaw Castle
{{Castles in Dumfries and Galloway Castles in Dumfries and Galloway Category A listed buildings in Dumfries and Galloway Clan Agnew Listed castles in Scotland Tower houses in Scotland Rhins of Galloway