Carrick Castle

Carrick Castle
Carrick Castle
	Carrick Castle being restored, 2019
General information
Type	Tower House
Location	Cowal Peninsula, Argyll and Bute.
Town or city	Carrick Castle (village)
Country	Scotland, United Kingdom
Coordinates	56.108742°N 4.9054980°W, National grid reference NS 19422 94469
Construction started	14th Century
Height	64ft
Technical details
Material	Stone
Floor count	2

Carrick Castle is a 14th-century tower house on the west shore of Loch Goil on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located between Cuilmuich and Carrick, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Lochgoilhead.

The castle stands on a rocky peninsula, and was formerly defended to landward by a ditch and drawbridge. The building is around 66 by 38 feet (20 by 12 m), and up to 64 feet (20 m) high with walls seven feet thick.[1] It consists of two floors above the central great hall and stands 64 feet high. There is a curiosity – a small chimney is built into a window recess. There is an appendage of a smaller 17th Century structure to the original rectangular tower house. The structure has been designated a scheduled monument and a Category A listed building by Historic Environment Scotland.[2][3]

Modern-day houses in the surrounding area take the name Carrick Castle.

History

The castle was probably built by the Campbells in the last decades of the fourteenth century,[4] at a point of time when the family was dominant in the area.[5]

Mary, Queen of Scots, visited here in 1563.

The ruin of Carrick Castle around 1890, with pier attracting tourism

Carrick Castle in 2019, under restoration and re-roofed.

During Argyll's Rising in 1685, when Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, attempted to overthrow King James VII, captain Thomas Hamilton of HMS Kingfisher reported that the castle had been burnt and walls reduced sufficiently to make it useless to the Campbell forces. Legend has it that the ship bombarded the castle, badly damaging the keep, which lost its roof.[6][7]

The castle was intermittently occupied until it was sold to the Murrays, the Earls of Dunmore.

The keep was a ruin for many years but is now in private ownership and undergoing restoration.

Notes and references

Groome, F.H. (1882–1885). "Carrick". Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. Thomas C. Jack. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
Historic Environment Scotland. "Carrick Castle (SM2495)". Retrieved 26 December 2018.
Historic Environment Scotland. "CARRICK CASTLE (Category A) (LB11815)". Retrieved 26 December 2018.
Argyll: An Inventory of the Monuments (1992) pp. 21, 226 § 116.
Argyll: An Inventory of the Monuments (1992) p. 229 § 116.
Ewart & Baker 1996.
Clark 1921, p. 74: "[Thomas Hamilton] rendered James no small service in capturing, off the west coast of Scotland, some of the ships which the Earl of Argyle had equipped to aid Monmouth in his rising."

Clark, Ruth (1921), Anthony Hamilton: his Life and Works and his Family, London: John Lane
Historic Environment Scotland. "CARRICK CASTLE (Category A) (LB11815)".
G. Ewart and F. Baker. (1996) "Carrick Castle: symbol and source of Campbell power in south Argyll from the 14th to the 17th century", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol.128, pp. 937–1016
Argyll: An Inventory of the Monuments. Vol. 7, Mid Argyll & Cowal. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. 1992. ISBN 0 11 494094 0 – via ScotlandsPlaces.

External links

Map sources for Carrick Castle

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[Groome-1] Groome, F.H. (1882–1885). "Carrick". Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. Thomas C. Jack. Retrieved 2008-11-21.

[2] Historic Environment Scotland. "Carrick Castle (SM2495)". Retrieved 26 December 2018.

[3] Historic Environment Scotland. "CARRICK CASTLE (Category A) (LB11815)". Retrieved 26 December 2018.

[4] Argyll: An Inventory of the Monuments (1992) pp. 21, 226 § 116.

[5] Argyll: An Inventory of the Monuments (1992) p. 229 § 116.

[FOOTNOTEEwartBaker1996-6] Ewart & Baker 1996.

[FOOTNOTEClark1921[httpsarchiveorgdetailsanthonyhamiltonh00claruoftpage74_74]-7] Clark 1921, p. 74: "[Thomas Hamilton] rendered James no small service in capturing, off the west coast of Scotland, some of the ships which the Earl of Argyle had equipped to aid Monmouth in his rising."