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Castle Tioram and the Macdonalds of Clanranald a Western Seaboard Castle in Context1

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Castle Tioram and the Macdonalds of Clanranald a Western Seaboard Castle in Context1 CHAPTER 12 Castle Tioram and the MacDonalds of Clanranald A Western Seaboard Castle in Context1 Geoffrey Stell Situated immediately outside the boundary of the former county of Argyll, whose castles and other monuments were thoroughly recorded in the seven- volume series of rcahms Inventories published between 1971 and 1992,2 Castle Tioram in Moidart had for a long time the unhappy distinction of being one of the least studied of Scotland’s western seaboard castles. In a short period fol- lowing the purchase of the castle by Anta Estates in 1997 that situation was sharply reversed, and it soon stood high among the ranks of minutely observed and recorded castles in the country as a whole. In 2006 the writer was invited by Historic Scotland, with the support of Anta Estates, to prepare a full statement of cultural significance on Castle Tioram, the third such statement to have been undertaken since 1997. Building upon a series of detailed historical and archaeological studies commissioned by Anta Estates,3 this exercise presented an opportunity to reappraise not only 1 The author wishes to record his gratitude to all members of the consultative group with whom he worked on the original report in 2006, especially to Peter Drummond, Athol Murray and John Raven. Others of the group who generously offered expert information and comments included Ted Cowan, Stephen Driscoll, Richard Fawcett, Aonghus MacKechnie and Allan Rutherford. Thanks are also extended to Anthony Dalton, Roger Miket, Marion Roberts, Iain Thornber and Richard Oram, who kindly agreed to a late request to include Castle Tioram in this volume of essays. 2 D. MacGibbon and T. Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, iii (Edinburgh, 1889), 56–58, and W.D. Simpson, ‘Castle Tioram, Moidart, Inverness-shire; and Mingary Castle, Ardnamurchan, Argyllshire’, Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, new series, xiii (1954), 70–90. For summary descriptions of the castle, based largely on these accounts, see also J Gifford, Highlands and Islands (Harmondsworth, 1992), 233–243, and M. Miers, The Western Seaboard (Edinburgh, 2006), 111–113. Castles consti- tuted a significant part of the coverage of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (rcahms), Inventory of Argyll series. See especially rcahms, Argyll 1 (Kintyre), 2 (Lorn), 3 (Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll), 5 (Islay, Jura & Colonsay), and 7 (Mid Argyll & Cowal, Medieval & later Monuments). See also Argyll Castles in the care of Historic Scotland, extracts from rcahms Inventories of Argyll, Vols 1, 2 and 7 (rcahms and Historic Scotland, Edinburgh, 1997), and a review article by J.E.A. Dawson, ‘Argyll: the endur- ing heartland’, Scottish Historical Review, vol. 74, 1 (April 1995), 88–94. 3 guard (Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division) Project 519, Castle Tioram, unpublished reports 1998–2000: 519.1 A Rutherford, ‘The Documentary Evidence’ (1998), © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004280359_014 <UN> 272 Stell Illus. 12.1 Castle Tioram, Loch Moidart; general view showing the eastern (right, in shadow) and southern (left, in sunlight) flanks of the 14th-century enclosure-wall crested by 16th- and 17th-century upperworks. The heightened original hall tower is to the right, and the original postern gateway, later blocked, lies just below and to the nearer side of it. Stretches of the curtain wall retain traces of the original crenelles (battlements) and of the holes which drained the parapet wall-walk. PHOTO: Richard Oram the castle’s history and its built form and fabric, but, equally importantly, to re-examine the wider physical, cultural and environmental context of a key western seaboard castle associated with the MacDonalds of Clanranald, the longest enduring branch of the Lordship of the Isles. This essay presents a 519.2 K. Speller and G. Tompsett, ‘Topographical and Archaeological Survey of Eilean Tioram’ (1998), 519.3, D.A. McCullough and M. Taylor’, An Underwater Survey at Castle Tioram, in Loch Moidart’ (1998), 519.4, C. Evans and A. Rutherford, ‘Building Analysis and Interpretation’ (1998), 519.5, K Speller, ‘The Survey Products’ (1998), 519.6, L.H. Johnstone, ‘A Report on the Archaeological Resource’ (1999), 519.7, A. Murray, S.T. Driscoll, B. Ballin Smith, ‘Landscape around Castle Tioram: The Historical Evidence’ (1999), 519.8, P G Johnson, ‘The Geophysical Survey’ (1999), and 519.9, K. Speller, ‘Archaeological monitoring of emergency stabilisation works to the north-west curtain wall’ (2000). Associated unpublished reports include A. Murray, ‘Castle Tioram – The Historical Background’ (1998), an especially valuable account, A.R.P. Lorimer and Associates, ‘Castle Tioram, Statement of Cultural Significance’ (1999), and D. Powell, ‘Castle Tioram: Assessment of rock types used in construction – a geological perspective’ (December, 1998). <UN>.
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