Castle Lachlan

Loch Fyne still looked grey this afternoon, but the sun was shining on old Castle Lachlan and the daffodils were bright on the near shore as the thermometer on our car read 18ºC - the only sign we've had so far of the warm weather elsewhere. We'd met my cousin for lunch in the Inver Restaurant, and walked off at least some of it on the path to the castle, the ruin of a fifteenth century fortress occupying a rocky headland overlooking Lachlan Bay on the east side of Loch Fyne. It was the major building of the local clan, the Maclachlans. There has been a castle on the site since at least 1314.

The old castle fell to ruin after the Clan of Maclachlan supported Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.  Their chief joined the Prince's army but was killed at the Battle of Culloden (1746) by a cannon ball. 

It is said that when the Maclachlan chief was killed at Culloden, his horse returned alone from the battlefield and swam across the loch to get home. The riderless horse signalled to the clanspeople that their chief had fallen in battle. The horse would not leave the castle and remained there until it died.

It is also said that shortly after this defeat, an English warship then sailed up the loch and bombarded the castle, although the evidence for this is unclear. Certainly, the castle was abandoned following Culloden and never inhabited again.

Back in the 21st century, we passed several signs warning of a road closure further down the road. It did indeed say that this was south of Lephinmore, but as only a sudden burst of signal enough to update my Google map allowed me to ascertain the relative positions of restaurant and road works, it made for a speculative drive. Apparently quite a few folk have been put off ...