Kinlochaline Castle

Kinlochaline Castle

Kinlochaline Castle is a 15th-century Scottish tower house on the Ardtornish estate in Morvern in the Highland council area. It is also known as Caisteal an Ime (Scottish Gaelic for Castle of Butter) because a Lady of Clan MacInnes, Dubh Chal (Lady of the Black Veil), is said to have paid the builder with butter equal to the volume of the castle.

History

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Kinlochaline Castle is located at the head of Loch Aline, positioned strategically for coastal defence.[1] Four stories tall, 43 by 34 feet (13 by 10 metres), with walls that are 10-foot-thick (3-metre) 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.[2] The castle was attacked by the Archibald Campbell, 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. The castle is now a residence.[1]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b "Kinlochaline Castle". Int'l Assn of Clan MacInnes. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
  2. ^ "Kinlochaline Castle". The Kinlochaline Castle Project. Archived from the original on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
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56°33′52″N 5°44′56″W / 56.56444°N 5.74889°W / 56.56444; -5.74889