MINGARY CASTLE.

Mingary Castle was the seat of the Chiefs of the Clan iain of Ardnamurchan, whose progenitor was lain Sprangach (John the Bold), third son of Angus Mor, elder son of Donald, Lord of Isla, progenitor of Clan Donald and grandson of Somerled, King of the Isles of Man. The castle is situated on a low rocky promontory overlooking the sea, about two miles from the village of Kilchoan, which rises to a height of some 25 feet above the foreshore. Its site is of considerable strategic importance from the viewpoint of sea-borne communication and controls the entrance from the Minch to the Sound of Mull and to Loch Sunart. Ardnamurchan Point, only about six miles west of the castle, formed the point of division between the North and South Isies of the Hebrides in the Middle Ages and Mingary, therefore, commanded the gateway to the Sudereys, or Southern Hebrides. Tobermory in Mull is only about six miles distant and Kilchoan Bay, about three miles west, provides a commodious and tranquil anchorage.

In calm weather small boats can be brought in directly beneath the castle. From the foreshore, on the west side, a rock-cut path leads up to the main entrance in the north-west curtain-wall. On the landward side visibility is limited and the ground rises gradually, laying the castle open to assault. To combat this weakness a rock-cut ditch, some 25 feet wide and 4 feet deep has been constructed. The castle comprises a curtain-wall of irregular hexagonal plan enclosing a courtyard which measures about 67 feet from north to south by 58 feet from east to west. Within the curtain-wall there are three ranges of buildings which occupy the north, west and south-east sides of the courtyard respectively, while there are entrance doorways in the north-west and south sections of the curtain-wall. A stone stair at the north-west corner of the courtyard leads up to a battlemented parapet-walk. On its three landward sides the curtain-wall has a height of 37 feet while on the seaward side the height is only about 28 feet. The main part of the curtain-wall and the north-west entrance-doorway can be dated to the thirteenth century, although the latter has been subsequently altered. There is nothing to suggest that any major alteration was made to the castle during the medieval period but in the late sixteenth century, the three seaward sections of the curtain-wall were furnished with a new parapet and wall-waik with angle-turrets at the south-west and south-east corners, while the iandward sections were raised in height and similarly given new battlements designed for musketry defence.

According to The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of the Monuments of Argyll, the sea-gate in the south curtain-wall was probably inserted subsequent to the construction of the main wall and probably dates from the late sixteenth century but earlier writers, e.g. MacGibbon and Ross (Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland) and W. Douglas Simpson ( Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Soc.) have concluded that this was the main original entrance to the castle, which would perhaps seem more likely. Further minor alterations appear to have been made during the sixteenth century to the north-west and west sections of the parapet walk and probably to the north-west entrance doorway. Access through this doorway was probably by means of a drawbridge spanning the ditch on the landward side, which was presumably replaced during the latter part of the eighteenth century by a stone causeway built across the ditch. There is no evidence to suggest that any alterations were made to the courtyard buildings earlier than circa 1700. New buildings were, however, erected on the north, west and south-east sides of the courtyard during the eighteenth century. Any study of Mingary Castle cannot but reveal the striking resemblance it bears to the neighbouring Castle Toram, and it has been suggested that the same mason may have been employed in the construction of both fortresses.

The name of the castle in Gaelic is Mioghairidh which, according to Dr. Alexander MacBain, means mickle garth, i.e. the great land between machair and moor. Its early history is unknown and the first mention of the castle in record is in 1493, in which year, on 25th October, it was occupied by James IV during his first punitive naval expedition to the Western Isles following the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles. The castle was again visited by the same monarch on 18th May, 1495 during a subsequent expedition.

Ardnamurchan was one of the territories granted by charter during the reign of Robert the Bruce to Angus 69 of Isla but it is unclear to whom this district belonged prior to that time. It is unlikely that it belonged to the MacRuairis of Gammoran whose representative was also the beneficiary of large grants of land from King Robert. The King's grant may have been only a confirmation to Angus Og, of lands already held by the House of Isla but it is also possible that these lands had formed part of territories forfeited by the MacDougalls on account of their constant opposition to the House of Bruce. Angus Og's son and successor John, first Lord of the Isles, for political reasons, supported Edward Balliol who during his short "reign" as King of Scots confirmed John of Isla in his lands of Ardnamurchan but after the triumph of the supporters of King Robert's successor the new king, David II granted Ardnamurchan to John's cousin, Angus Maclain, son of John Sprangach (the Bold), youngest brother of Angus Og. From this Angus Maclain descended the branch of Clan Donald known as the Clan Iain of Ardnamurchan, the seat of whose chiefs was the Castle of Mingary until the early decades of the seventeenth century when it, along with the lands of Ardnamurchan were lost to the Campbells. Following the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles, John MacDonald, or Maclain of Ardnamurchan in 1499 obtained a grant from the Crown of his lands with the Castle of Mengarie.

Following the death of James IV at Flodden in 1513, hostilities broke out between Maclain of Ardnamurchan and Sir Donald MacDonald of Lochalsh, whose father had been assassinated by Maclain. Sir Donald, who was then attempting to lay claim to the Lordship of the Isles besieged Mingary in 1515 and again, more successfully, two years later, when he took possession of the castle, which he burned and laid waste the surrounding lands. In 1519 James V granted to Colin, Earl of Argyll, the "Castles" of Ardnamurchan with the lands. This was a grant of superiority but the MacDonalds continued in actual possession. During a bitter feud that developed between the MacDonalds of Dunnyvaig and the Glens, and the MacLeans of Duart in the 1580s, the Maclains became involved. In 1588 John Maclain was treacherously seized, in Mull, by Sir Lachlan MacLean on the occasion of his wedding with the mother of the latter and MacLean laid siege to Mingary with the support of a hundred Spanish soldiers from an Armada galleon which had taken refuge in Tobemmory Bay. After three days he was forced to raise the siege and withdraw on the approach of a superior force provided by the neighbouring clans. Early in the next century, the Campbell grip was closing tightly upon Ardnamurchan and in 1612, Archibald, seventh Earl of Argyll granted a commission to his brother-in-law, Donald Campbell of Barbreck-Lochow, a natural son of Sir Colin Campbell of Calder (now Cawdor) "to take and receive the castle and place of Mingarry, and, upon the Earl's expenses to put keepers therein".

Ten years later the MacDonalds attempted, unsuccessfully, to recover the castle by twice besieging it but these efforts only led to their total destruction as a clan at the hands of the Campbells; and in 1626 Donald Campbell besieged and taken by Alasdair Mac Colla (Young Colkitto) in 1 644 and held during the campaigns of Montrose until it was retaken by General David Leslie in 1647. Following the death of Sir Donald Campbell, as he had by then become, in 1651 the estate appears to have reverted to the Earls of Argyll, and in 1696 Archibald, tenth Earl granted Ardnamurchan, including the Castle of Mingary to Alexander Campbell, sixth of Lochnell and his son Duncan.

In 1723 the estate was purchased by Alexander Murray, son of Sir David Murray of Stanhope in whose possession it remained until his death in 1743. When Prince Charles Edward Stewart landed in Moidart in August 1745 the castle was occupied by Donald Campbell of Auchindoun as factor of the Duke of Argyll's Ardnamurchan estate and a small force of Hanoverian troops was immediately sent to hold it. In January 1746 the garrison was increased to fifty-nine officers and men, some of whom took part in harrying Morvern in March of that year.

Around 1770 the estate of Ardnamurchan was acquired by James Riddell whose descendants continued in possession until 1848. It is not known when the castle was finally vacated but the north range of buildings appears to have been still habitable in 1838. Sources include: Place names of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, by Alexander MacBain; History of the Westem Highlands and Isles, by Donald Gregory; Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, by MacGibbon and Ross, Vol.111; Mingary Castle, by W. Douglas Simpson, in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Glasgow, New Series, Vol. Xlil; Royal Commission of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - Argyle Inventory - Vol. Vll.