Scotland · Partial ruin
Finlarig Castle
Finlarig Castle is an early 17th-century L-plan tower-house built in 1629 by the Campbells of Breadalbane, standing on a mound on a peninsula between the River Lochay and Loch Tay near Killin, Scotland. The stone tower-house originally had an outer barmekin enclosure; much of the complex has since fallen into ruin but substantial masonry walls remain.
Its prime
1629
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1629
What Finlarig Castle looked like in its prime.
An L-plan early 17th-century tower-house of pale grey rubble masonry, formed by a main rectangular block with a shorter projecting wing creating an inner re-entrant angle; tall stone walls punctuated by narrow, vertically aligned rectangular window openings and a ground-level doorway set in the re-entrant angle. At its prime the blocks rose several storeys with continuous roofed upper floors. The castle crowns a raised grassy mound on a narrow peninsula between the River Lochay and Loch Tay and was surrounded by a now-ruinous barmekin.
Its story
The story of Finlarig Castle.
Black Duncan Campbell's Tower House, 1629–1713
Finlarig Castle was built in 1629 by 'Black' Duncan Campbell (Donnchadh Dubh) of Glenorchy, on a mound on a peninsula between the River Lochay and Loch Tay, just north of Killin. An L-plan tower house formerly protected by an outer barmekin, it was one of many strongholds raised in Argyll and Perthshire by the Campbells of Breadalbane. Rob Roy MacGregor visited the castle in 1713.
The Beheading Pit and the Breadalbane Mausoleum
Near the castle's north wall is a stone-lined pit which, legend has it, was used for beheading prisoners of noble blood; commoners were hanged on a nearby oak tree. Close by stand the remnants of the Breadalbane Mausoleum, a mock-Tudor chapel built in 1829 on the site of an earlier chapel and burial place founded in 1523 by Sir Colin Campbell, an ancestor of the Earls of Breadalbane. Left to decay over many years, the brick-built mausoleum has almost entirely collapsed.
The castle itself is now in a dangerously ruinous condition. It has been a scheduled monument since 22 May 1989.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1629.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Finlarig Castle, including the full exterior approach. 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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Recreate Finlarig Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Finlarig Castle.
The families that held Finlarig Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Built in 1629 by 'Black' Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, one of the strongholds of the Campbells of Breadalbane, whose mausoleum stands nearby.
