Scotland · Ruin
Dunaverty Castle
Dunaverty Castle occupies a steep rocky headland at the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula in western Scotland. Historically a MacDonald stronghold, the castle is now little more than a ruin and the site is protected as a scheduled monument. The headland is defended by sea cliffs on three sides and was accessible only from the north by a narrow land approach and drawbridge.
Its prime
1542
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1542
What Dunaverty Castle looked like in its prime.
Perched on a steep rocky headland with sheer cliffs to the sea on three sides, the castle in its prime comprised a compact grey-stone curtain wall that hugged the irregular summit. The landward side narrowed to a stony isthmus and a single fortified gate reached by a timber drawbridge across the approach path. Inside the enclosure an open stone-paved courtyard and a tight cluster of service buildings occupied the summit, the masonry blending with the local dark rock.
Its story
The story of Dunaverty Castle.
Walter Byset's Seizure and the Norwegian Grant, 1248–1263
Dunaverty stands on a rocky headland at the south-east corner of Kintyre, where the sea on three sides makes a natural stronghold approachable only from the north. The headland is attached to the mainland by a narrow path alone, and the castle itself is known to have been reached by a drawbridge. In 1248 Henry III of England allowed Walter Byset to buy stores in Ireland for Dunaverty, which Byset had seized and was fortifying, apparently in revenge for the hospitality Alexander II of Scotland had shown to certain English pirates. Byset did not hold it long: within the same year the castle was taken by Allan, son of the Earl of Atholl, and Byset was taken prisoner.
In 1263 Alexander III garrisoned Dunaverty during the Norwegian campaign of Hákon Hákonarson. The castle was eventually surrendered to the Norwegian king, who granted it in turn to Dubhghall mac Ruaidhrí, one of his steadfast supporters in the Hebrides. With the evaporation of Norwegian sovereignty in the Hebrides after 1263, Alexander III appears to have retaken it.
Robert I on the Kintyre Headland, 1306
Late in 1306 the embattled Robert I seems to have fled to the safety of Dunaverty and of his friend Aonghus Óg Mac Domhnaill, Lord of the Isles. According to The Bruce, Aonghus Óg harboured the king there for three days before taking him on to Rathlin Island. Some contemporary sources tell it differently, holding that the castle was already under the king's control and that he had acquired it from a certain Maol Coluim in March. In September of that year, when the English arrived at Dunaverty, the Scottish king was not to be found.
The Forfeiture of the Isles and the Burning by Sussex, 1493–1588
In 1493 the fourth and last Lord of the Isles forfeited his title to James IV, and by 1494 the king had garrisoned and provisioned Dunaverty. It is said that the MacDonalds, led by Sir John MacDonald whom the king had recently knighted, retook the castle before James had even departed for Stirling, and that the dead body of the king's castle governor was hung over the castle walls in sight of the king and his departing entourage. Sir John was later captured by MacIain of Ardnamurchan, tried, and hanged on the Burgh Muir near Edinburgh.
The crown repaired the castle between 1539 and 1542. In January 1544 a commission in Queen Mary's name instructed the captain, constable and keeper of Dunaverty to deliver it, with its artillery and ammunition, to the Earl of Argyll, and in April of that year Argyll received a twelve-year tack of North and South Kintyre, the castle included. In October 1588 the English raided Kintyre and Campbeltown Loch because of the activities of Clan MacDonald in Ireland: the Earl of Sussex sailed from Dublin in the Mary Willoughby with a small fleet and burnt Saddell, Dunaverty and Machrimore, then burnt farms on Arran, Bute and Cumbrae.
The Lordship of Kintyre and the Massacre of 1647
In 1626 the Lordship of Kintyre was reconstituted in favour of the Earl of Argyll, and Dunaverty Castle was denoted its principal messuage. Argyll bestowed the lordship on James, his eldest son by his second marriage, who in 1635, at Dunaverty, granted a charter of it to Viscount Dunluce, eldest son of Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim. The Scottish Privy Council set the transfer aside, no doubt on a complaint from Argyll's eldest son, the Marquis of Lorn, who had bitterly resented his father's bestowal of the lordship on his younger half-brother. On 12 December 1636 Lorn received a charter, under the Great Seal, of the Lordship of Kintyre, with the Castle of Dunaverty as its principal messuage.
During the Civil War, Dunaverty was besieged in 1647 by Scottish supporters of Oliver Cromwell, led by General David Leslie, who later became a Royalist. The MacDonalds surrendered, and then 300 of them were massacred. The incident became known as the Battle of Dunaverty, or the Dunaverty Massacre. The castle is nothing more than a ruin now, known as Blood Rock for the massacre which took place there, and the site, in Argyll and Bute, is protected as a scheduled monument.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1542.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Dunaverty Castle, including 1 interior: summit courtyard. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Dunaverty Castle.
The families that held Dunaverty Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
A fort of Clan Donald, refuge of Robert the Bruce in 1306 under Aonghus Óg Mac Domhnaill, until the last Lord of the Isles forfeited to James IV in 1493.
