argyll-1971/01-201

Transcribe other information

Page No is 159
foot of right hand side text -
1 This historical account follows that given in McKerrel,
Kintyre, 3 ff.,57 ff.
2 Turner, Sir J., Memoirs of his own Life and Times
MDCXXXII-MDCLXX, Bannatyne Club (1829), 45.
3 Stat, Acct., iii(1792), 365.

Transcription

CASTLES, TOWER-HOUSES AND FORTIFICATIONS


A drawing/diagram titled Fig. 162 Dunaverty Castle (No309) plan is at top
of page above the text on lefthand and right hand pages.


Left hand page

The castle was probably dismantled at the time of the
Earl of Argyll's rebellion of 1685. 1
An eye-witness account of the siege of 1647 describes
the castle simply as "a house on the top of a hill . . .
environd with a stone wall", 2 but the author of the
Statistical Account, writing shortly before 1792, mentions
the existence, or former existence, of a drawbridge (pre-
sumably spanning the gulf that separates the promontory
from the mainland) "after which two or three walls, one
within the other, fortified the ascent". 3

688074 cclxv & cclxvia June 1967


310. Castle, Island Muller. Island Muller is a small
rock-promontory situated on the N. side of Kilchousland
Bay about 4km NE. of Campbeltown and some 550m
SE of Lower Smerby farmhouse. Upon the summit of
the promontory, which is approached by means of a
grass-grown causeway about 90m in length, there stand
the fragmentary remains of a small tower-house of medi-
eval date (Fig.163). The tower, now reduced to its
lowermost courses, appears to be constructed of local
random-rubble masonry laid in lime mortar. It is oblong
on plan and measures 13.3m from E. to W. by 12.0m
transversely; the side walls have a thickness of about
2.8m and the end walls a thickness of 2.6m. An external
return in the masonry of the W. wall may mark the site of
an entrance doorway, while a small relieving-arch near
the centre of the S. wall (A on Fig.163) probably indicates
the position af a latrine-chute outlet. The low turf-grown



Right-hand page

mound that partly encloses the tower may represent the
remains of a rampart-wall of contemporary, or of earlier,
date.

It is uncertain whether the causeway is of natural or of
artificial origin; it appears to lie above the level reached
by the highest tides. At the inner end of the causeway
there is a small rectangular platform (X) enclosed on its
three landward sides by the remains of a wall of stone or
turf; this may have served to shelter small boats hauled
up from the shallow little bay situated on the N. side of
the promontory. The approach track passed the inner end
of this platform and skirts the W. base of the rock outcrop
before turning eastwards to ascend its southern slopes.
Immediately before the point at which it begins to ascend,
the track passes through what seem to be the remains of
a small sub-rectangular building or enclosure (Y) measure-
ing about 10.7m from W. to E. by 7.6m transversely
over all.
Almost nothing is known of the history of this castle,
but the simple rectangular plan and massive construction
of the tower suggest that it was erected at a comparatively
early date within the medieval period. During the 16th
century the lands of Ballimenach and Smerby appear to
have been held by the MacDonald family, and it is on
record that Sir James MacDonald, son of Angus
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1 This historical account follows that given in McKerrel,
Kintyre, 3 ff.,57 ff.
2 Turner, Sir J., Memoirs of his own Life and Times
MDCXXXII-MDCLXX, Bannatyne Club (1829), 45.
3 Stat, Acct., iii(1792), 365.