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| Dunaverty Castle | |
|---|---|
 The site of Dunaverty Castle | |
| Coordinates | 55°18′27″N5°38′41″W / 55.3075°N 5.6447°W /55.3075; -5.6447 |
| Reference no. | SM3041 |
  Location in Argyll and Bute | |
Dunaverty Castle is located atSouthend at the southern end of theKintyre peninsula in westernScotland. The site was once a fort belonging to theClan Donald (MacDonald). Little remains of the castle,[1] although the site is protected as ascheduled monument.[2]
The remains of Dunaverty Castle stand on a rocky head land on the south east corner ofKintyre,Scotland. The headland it was built on forms a natural stronghold with the sea on three sides and is only approachable from the north. It is attached to the mainland only by a narrow path. It is known that the castle itself was accessed by a drawbridge.
In 1248,Henry III, King of England allowedWalter Byset to buy stores fromIreland for Dunaverty Castle which he had seized and was fortifying, apparently in revenge for hospitality given byAlexander II, King of Scotland to certain English pirates. However, during that same year, the castle was taken by Allan, the son of theEarl of Atholl, and Byset was taken prisoner.
In 1263, Dunaverty Castle was garrisoned byAlexander III, King of Scotland during theNorwegian campaign ofHákon Hákonarson, King of Norway.
The castle was eventually surrendered to the Norwegian king, who in turn granted it toDubhghall mac Ruaidhrí, one of his steadfast supporters in the Hebrides. With the evaporation of Norwegian sovereignty in the Hebrides after 1263, Alexander III appears to have retaken the castle.[3]
Late in 1306, the embattledRobert I, King of Scotland seems to have fled to the safety of Dunaverty Castle and his friend,Aonghus Óg Mac Domhnaill, the Lord of the Isles. According toThe Bruce, the king was harboured there for three days byAonghus Óg Mac Domhnaill, before Aonghus took him toRathlin Island. Some contemporary sources suggest that the castle was already under the king's control, however, and that the king acquired it from a certainMaol Coluim in March. In September of that year, when the English arrived at the castle, the Scottish king was not to be found.
In 1493, the fourth and lastLord of the Isles forfeited his title toJames IV, King of Scotland. By 1494, the king had garrisoned and provisioned Dunaverty Castle. It is said that the MacDonalds, led by Sir John MacDonald whom the king had recently knighted, retook the castle before the King had even departed toStirling and that the dead body of the King's castle governor was hung over the castle walls in sight of the King and his departing entourage. Sir John Macdonald however was later captured byMacIain of Ardnamurchan. He was tried and hanged on theBurgh Muir near Edinburgh.
The castle was repaired by the crown between 1539 and 1542. In January 1544, a Commission inQueen Mary's name was given to the captain, constable and keeper of the Castle of Dunaverty, to deliver it with its artillery and ammunition to theEarl of Argyll and in April of that year Argyll received a 12-yeartack of North and South Kintyre, including the castle.
The English raided Kintyre andCampbeltown Loch in October 1588 because of the activities of theClan MacDonald in Ireland. TheEarl of Sussex sailed from Dublin in theMary Willoughby with a small fleet and burntSaddell, Dunaverty and Machrimore. He then burnt farms on Arran, Bute, and Cumbrae.[4]
In 1626, theLordship of Kintyre was reconstituted in favour of theEarl of Argyll and Dunaverty Castle was denoted as its principalmessuage. Argyll bestowed the Lordship of Kintyre on James, his eldest son by his second marriage, who, in 1635, at Dunaverty, granted a charter of the Lordship toViscount Dunluce, eldest son ofRandal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim. The transfer was set aside by theScottish Privy Council, no doubt on a complaint by Argyll's eldest son, theMarquis of Lorn, who had bitterly resented his father's bestowal of the Lordship on his younger half-brother. On 12 December 1636, Lorn received a charter, under the Great Seal, of the Lordship of Kintyre, with the Castle of Dunaverty as its principal messuage.
During theCivil War Dunaverty was besieged in 1647 by Scottish supporters ofOliver Cromwell who were led by GeneralDavid Leslie (Leslie later became aRoyalist). The MacDonalds surrendered and then 300 of them were massacred. This incident became known as theBattle of Dunaverty, or "Dunaverty Massacre". The castle is nothing more than a ruin now, known asBlood Rock for the massacre which took place there.