13/04/2024
Destination Argyll: Castle Lachlan
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Castle Lachlan.
High above a broad and muddy tidal inlet on the western shoreline of the Cowal peninsula there are the substantial remains of a large medieval castle known locally as Old Castle Lachlan, It was built here in the 15th century by Clan MacLachlan on the flat top of a rocky coastal promontory that extends out from the upper reaches of the Cowal and into the waters of Loch Fyne, Loch Fyne being a sea loch that stretches southwards from the loch head near Inveraray in Mid Argyll for nearly 65 km until it emerges into the Firth of Clyde, Loch Fyne being one of Scotland's longest Sea Lochs.
There was once an earlier Castle Lachlan at the same site but no parts of that original castle have been positively identified other than it having been mentioned in records that date back beyond 1314, to a time when the great Celtic Chieftain Lachlan Mòr of Clan MacLachlan lived in this district now known as Strathlachlan, an area claimed to have been granted to Gilleskel MacLachlan by King John Balliol in a Royal Charter dated to 1292. In later centuries a further Royal Charter of lands in northern Cowal and on the west side of Loch Fyne were also granted to Archibald MacLachlan 15th Clan Chief, by King James VI in 1574.
Lachlan Mòr, or "Big Lachlan" as his name would be said in English also held lands in Gleann Dà Ruadhail and Cille Bhrìghde, to the east and north of Castle Lachlan, and from these lands that he earned rent money, and it would be assumed that he put this money towards the building of his impressive castle.
