Scotland · Ruin
Moy Castle
Moy Castle is a three-storey tower house with a garret on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, built for the Macleans in the 15th century and abandoned in 1752. The structure survives as a roofless ruin and is a scheduled monument located near Lochbuie.
Its prime
1500
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1500
What Moy Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact, vertical three-storey tower house with a garret beneath gabled ends and a pitched roof, built of rough grey masonry. The roofline is finished by a crenellated parapet with the remains of two small cap-houses rising above it. Narrow window slits and larger openings puncture the façades. A small barmkin or fenced yard lies to the southeast. The tower stands close to the shoreline on low marshy ground with a steep, bare hill rising directly behind it.
Its story
The story of Moy Castle.
The Macleans of Lochbuie, 1360–1494
The land at Lochbuie on the Isle of Mull was granted in 1360 to Hector Reaganach Maclean, 1st Laird of Lochbuie, brother of Lachlan Lubanach Maclean of Duart. Construction of the tower was probably begun by John Maclean, 3rd Laird, and finished by his son Hector, the 4th laird. The castle's first surviving mention comes in a royal charter of March 1494, confirming that John Maclean, 5th Laird, held his lands from the Lord of the Isles.
Capture by Clan Campbell and Abandonment in 1752
Moy was later captured from the Macleans of Lochbuie by Clan Campbell, though it was in time returned to them. It was abandoned in 1752, when a new house was built nearby.
Ruin, Stabilisation and Scheduled Monument Status
Moy is a three-storey tower house with a garret; most of its stonework dates from the early fifteenth century, with alterations added at the end of the sixteenth. Though roofless, the walls stand virtually intact to the height of the gables and parapet, with a crenellated parapet, the remains of two cap-houses, a well on the ground floor and a small barmkin on the south-east side. Stabilisation works ran from 2006 to 2015, with conservation work continuing as of 2020. The castle has been a scheduled monument since 1991 and was used for scenes in Powell and Pressburger's 1945 film I Know Where I'm Going!, alongside other locations on Mull.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1500.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Moy Castle, including 2 interiors: ground floor chamber with well, garret beneath the gables. 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 Moy Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Moy Castle.
The families that held Moy Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Held by the Macleans of Lochbuie from 1360 until the castle's abandonment in 1752.
From the archive
Moy Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
Fig. 77.—Moy Castle.
1889 · MacGibbon & Ross, vol. 3 (1889)
Public domain
