Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Ardvreck Castle

Ardvreck Castle is a ruined castle on a peninsula in Loch Assynt. It was built around 1490 by the MacLeods of Assynt, a branch of the Clan MacLeod, who had owned Assynt since the beginning of the 14th century. The first, quite simple building, which consisted only of a tower house, was fundamentally expanded by Donald Ban MacLeod about a century later to include a tower and surrounding walls. This is the place where during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms the royalist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was handed over in 1650 to the Covenanter forces by MacLeod, Laird of Assynt after the Battle of Carbisdale. James Graham was taken to Edinburgh and executed in 1650. The MacLeods lost the castle a few years later after Neil MacLeod was deemed a rebel by the new government for handing over James Graham after the restoration of the monarchy. In 1672 the Seaforths of MacKenzie, a branch of the Clan MacKenzie, captured the castle after a two-week siege.