Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 20 on 10/04/2005.

This article is 40 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Black pearl

Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull is well sited as a defensive fortress. Charles Douglas reports

The fortress looms, dark and formidable, a sentinel guarding the waterways between the Hebridean island of Mull, mainland Scotland, and the neck of the Firth of Lorne. Long, long ago, Norse and Viking longships relentlessly raided this coastline, taking no captives.

The location for Duart Castle was well chosen. Strategically sited on a high crag at the end of an island peninsula, Dubh Ard in Gaelic, meaning ‘black point,’ it guards the entrances of both Loch Linnhe and Loch Etive.

The Clan Maclean, whose headquarters this remains, descend from Gilleathan-na-Tuaighe, known in the 11th century as Gillean of the Battle Axe. He was a relative of the ancient kings of Dalriada, and helped to repel the Norse invasion at the Battle of Largs in 1263. The first recorded mention of his descendants being at Duart comes from a papal dispensation of 1367 which permitted one Lachlan Lubanach Maclean to marry Mary Macdonald, the daughter of the Lord of the Isles.

This marriage, it is claimed, was a love match, but only sanctioned by the bride’s father after Lachlan had kidnapped him. During the ensuing skirmish, the chief of the Mackinnons was killed, and, for reasons presumably apparent at the time, the Macleans were granted the Mackinnon lands on Mull as a dowry.

This seems a bit high handed, but the Dominus Insularem of the Isles no doubt had his reasons. And it probably was a love match. Lachlan’s eldest brother, Eachin Reganach, was recognised as MacLaine of Lochbuie, but through .....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Charles Douglas

Section : Historic Houses

Page number : 14