Tour Scotland Photograph Duart Castle

Tour Scotland photograph of Duart Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland. The castle dates back to the 13th century and was the seat of Clan MacLean. In 1350 Lachlan Lubanach Maclean of Duart, the 5th Clan Chief, married Mary, daughter of the John of Islay, Lord of the Isles and she was given Duart as her dowry. In 1647, Duart Castle was attacked and laid siege to by the Argyll government troops of Clan Campbell, but they were defeated and driven off by the Royalist troops of Clan MacLean. In September 1653, a Cromwellian task force of six ships anchored off the castle, but the Macleans had already fled to Tiree. A storm blew up on the 13 September and three ships were lost, including HMS Swan. In 1678, Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, son of the Marquess of Argyll, successfully invaded the Clan MacLean lands on the Isle of Mull and Sir John Maclean, 4th Baronet fled the castle and withdrew to Cairnbulg Castle, and afterward to Kintail under the protection of the Earl of Seaforth. In 1691 Duart Castle was surrendered by Sir John Maclean, 4th Baronet to Argyll. The Campbell clan kept a garrison there, but soon after the that defeat, the Campbells also demolished the stone house of Torloisk, and after loading the furnishings, the door and window sills, joists and slates from the house aboard a galley, they carried away their loot. The stones from the walls they scattered over the moor. Donald Maclean, 5th Laird of Torloisk used some of the stones to build a cottage for his family close to the site of the castle from some of these stones. In 1751 the castle was abandoned. Descendants of Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll sold the castle in 1801, to MacQuarrie, who in turn parted with it to Campbell of Fossil, who later on sold it to A. C. Guthrie in 1865, and on September 11, 1911, the castle was bought by Sir Fitzroy Donald Maclean, the 26th Chief of the Clan MacLean and restored.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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