Lochranza Castle

At first glance, Lochranza Castle looks like a classic Scottish L-plan tower house of the 1500s. But on closer inspection, it has been redeveloped from a much earlier medieval hall-house.  It was originally two storeys high beneath battlements, with the lord’s lodging on the upper floor. The ground floor was a storage area with a ‘tradesmen’s entrance’ and a murder hole directly above. This was a trapdoor through which defenders could kill intruders with arrows, stones or other projectiles! It is situated on a sea loch on the north of the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde.