Description:

Perched on a promontory in Loch Assynt, midway between Ledmore and Lochinver, the stark ruins of Ardvreck ('Ard Bhreac') Castle, a 16th-century stronghold of Clan MacLeod, create a striking scene. The clan came into possession of Assynt around 1050, when the son of the MacLeod of Lewis married the last daughter of Ian Mac Nicol, the then-owner of Assynt. In 1650, James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose, having lost the battle of Carbisdale and in desperate straits, was found near the castle by Neil MacLeod´s men. Montrose was taken, supposedly for his own safety, to the vaulted cellars in the castle’s basement, where he was held. The Marquis had the bad luck that MacLeod was a Presbyterian, though it was actually MacLeod’s wife who secured Montrose and informed her husband. It’s likely she was the one who handed him over to the Covenanters, who reached the castle on May 4th. Bound and on horseback, the unfortunate man was led to Edinburgh for execution. Neil MacLeod never received the promised reward and, in betraying the marquis, made himself a lifelong enemy—his neighbor, the Earl of Seaforth. The MacKenzies, the Glengarry MacDonalds, and the MacLeods of Skye ravaged ‘poor’ Neil’s lands. The castle was destroyed later in the 17th century.