After a smooth and unexpectedly quiet crossing of The Minch, with only dolphins or porpoises for company, the Sound of Mull offered a surprise: Ardtornish Castle. Once a key stronghold of the Lords of the Isles—descendants of Somerled and rulers of the Western Seaboard until the late 1400s—this ruined 13th-century fortress stands at the tip of a promontory jutting into the Sound.
What remains is a curtain-walled shell, once enclosing a semi-fortified, two-storey hall house built of cut basalt. It looks dramatic enough from a distance, but most of what you see is the result of heavy-handed repairs from the early 20th century. The east wall and upper south wall were refaced, a segmental-arched window was added, and a new doorway shoved into the old entrance.
Only a few original features remain: the cills of slit windows on the south side, a passage to a garderobe on the north-west corner, and some faint traces of outbuildings scattered around1Ardtornish Castle Canmore ID 22449. http://canmore.org.uk/site/22449.
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