Menu
 
Portfolio
 
Terms of Use
 

Invergarry Castle

Invergarry Castle in the Scottish Highlands was the seat of the Chiefs of the Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, a powerful branch of the Clan Donald.

 

The castle’s position overlooking Loch Oich on Creagan an Fhithich – the Raven’s Rock – in the Great Glen, was a strategic one in the days of clan warfare. It is not certain when the first structure was erected on Creagan an Fhithich but there are at least two sites prior to the present castle.

 

After raids by the Clan Mackenzie in 1602 which included the burning of Strome Castle, the MacDonalds of Glengarry fortified Creagan an Fhithich. The result was an imposing six-story L-plan tower house, although the exact form of the earlier castle is not known. According to clan tradition, the castle was built with stones passed hand to hand by a chain of clansmen from the mountain Ben Tee.

 

During the Civil War Oliver Cromwell’s troops under General Monck burned the castle down in 1654. Repaired, it was held for King James VII of Scotland from 1688 until its surrender to the Government forces of William and Mary in 1692. It was then held by the Jacobites during the 1715 uprising, but taken for the government in 1716. During the 1745 uprising, it was again held by Jacobites and visited twice by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

 

During the Jacobite risings of 1745 to 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart – “Bonnie Prince Charlie” – visited the Castle shortly after the raising of the Royal Standard at Glenfinnan and is said to have rested there after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden, in 1746. The MacDonell’s were closely involved throughout the Jacobite risings, Lord MacDonnell being a Member of the Prince’s Council. In the aftermath of Culloden, the castle was sacked and partially blown up by troops under the Duke of Cumberland as part of his systematic suppression of the Highlands.

 

However, the stout walls refused to yield and have survived the centuries to serve as a reminder of their history. More prosaically, the Duke of Cumberland’s men no doubt felt that they had ‘slighted’ the castle sufficiently by removing the SE wall and demolishing the NW ‘L’ extension. The castle was never rebuilt, being abandoned by the MacDonell’s in favor of a new Invergarry House. This seems to have been commenced within a few years, Richard Pococke reporting this on his 1760 tour.

 

The Glengarry estates were sold by Aeneas Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, the son of Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry (1771–1828) when he came of age, but he retained Invergarry Castle, Invergarry House, the “Well of Heads” and the ancient clan burial ground, which instead passed through Aeneas’s daughter to the Erskine Cuninghames of Balgownie and Corrie.

More posts..

Conisbrough Castle

Conisbrough Castle is a medieval fortification in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The castle was initially built in the 11th century by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Hamelin Plantagenet, the illegitimate, parvenu brother of Henry II,

Read More
The Rollright Stones

  The Rollright Stones is a complex of three Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monuments near the village of Long Compton, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. Constructed from local oolitic limestone, the three monuments now known as the King’s Men and the Whispering

Read More
Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William the Conqueror during 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England, situated on a meander of the River Avon. The original wooden motte-and-bailey castle was rebuilt in stone during

Read More
Rochester Castle

Rochester Castle stands on the east bank of the River Medway in Rochester, Kent, South East England. The 12th-century keep or stone tower, which is the castle’s most prominent feature, is one of the best-preserved in England or France.   Castles were introduced to England

Read More
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
error: