History - Formidable fortress on Loch Awe Photo by Gunther Tschuch CC BY-SA 4.0 Kilchurn Castle
Formidable fortress on Loch Awe E the numerous branches of Clan Campbell.
killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
Situated at the head of Loch Awe this 600-year-old former Clan Cambell stronghold is one of the most photographed landmarks in Scotland.
Initially the five-storey tower house, with a grand hall, private chambers, cellar and dungeon prison, was built on the rocky island outcrop of ‘Elankylquhurne’ ,or island of Kilchurn, and acted as a power base as the clan extended its influence and territory.
Over the next couple of hundred years the castle underwent a series of renovations, enlargements and changes of fortunes.
The foundations of the fortress were laid in the mid 1400s by Sir Colin Campbell, 1st Lord of Glenorchy, whose family went on to become the most powerful of
Following Colin’s death his son, Sir Duncan Campbell, built up the castle and would probably have gone on to do more improvements had he not been
ven as a ruin Kilchurn castle strikes an aweinspiring pose overlooking the third largest freshwater loch in Scotland and the surrounding countryside of Argyll.
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In the 1690s Sir John Campbell, the 5th Baronet, championed an attempt to pacify the Highlands and turned part of the castle into a military garrison for government troops with the addition of a barracks block big enough to hold 200 soldiers.
