Description:

Once a hunting lodge for Scottish kings and linked to the Stewart family, this spot is thought to be where Robert the Bruce landed in 1306 after returning from Ireland to begin his campaign for the throne. His grandson, King Robert II, took ownership in 1371, and it continued to serve as a royal hunting lodge. In the 1490s, Lochranza Castle became James IV’s base for attacking the MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles. James VI seized it in 1614, and Cromwell’s forces held it in the 1650s.

The Hamiltons became the final owners in 1705, but by the eighteenth century, the castle had fallen into ruin and was abandoned.