A small island on Loch Dochart is the site of one of the many castles built or acquired by Duncan, 7th Lord Glenorchy. The castle is visible from the main Crianlarich-Killin road, but despite its proximity is very inaccessible. Although the castle is only a hagbut-shot from the shore, reed beds and mud banks form a swampy barrier to its access.
A bathymetric survey of the loch in the early 20th centrury recorded an average depth of 5 feet, and noted that the loch was “very weedy”1. It certainly is today, and numerous sand banks and weed beds make navigating by boat to the island a challenge. A “can do” approach, and some careful observation of water flow means the landing area on the island can be reached with some difficulty by entering the loch via the channel leading upstream from the deeper and larger Loch Iubhair. Going is treacherous: in places the water is only a few centimetres clear of the weeds, and the mud beneath is at least a metre deep. The water flow, though gentle, pushes paddlers and rowers back towards Loch Iubhair and there’s a very real risk of grounding on mud that, while thick enough to stop a vessel, is soft enough for a disembarking paddler to sink in, at least waist deep. Some judicious if inelegant dragging on paddles can sometimes win through. On both visits to the loch in the summer of 2021, we were lucky to get through to the landing stage, and watched holidaymakers turn back as the weeds and mud threatened to ground their kayaks and rowing boats. Return trips proved easier as the flow of the water, and the channels through the mud, were more easily visible. The bathymetrical survey referenced above was conducted in April 1902, when the water level was possibly higher owing to spring rain and snow run-off coming down the River Fillan. It’s also possible that the loch has silted up further in the intervening 119 years.
The extant building on the island features an impressive three storey chimney, that in recent times has obviously been the site of campfires.
Inside the chimney is a coat of arms of the Campbells of Glenorchy, featuring the Campbell birlinn and supported by two unicorns.
The castle was primarily a residence, but shows signs, as most houses of the period do, of defensive architecture such as arrow slits that doubled as loopholes for guns. There is also impressive buttressing surviving on the eastern wall of the house. The island commands views up and down Glen Dochart, and sits under the ominous presence of Ben More, which was managed as a deer forest by Duncan’s father, Colin, on behalf of the Carthusian Charterhouse in Perth prior to the Reformation2. The establishment of the castle symbolises the Glenorchy Campbells’ eastward expansion under Colin, the 6th Lord (1550-1583) and Duncan (1583-1631): as they extended their dominance in the area, they asserted their control with with visual lordly architecture at Loch Dochart, Finlarig (Killin), Edinample (on Loch Earn), and Balloch (later Taymouth, near Kenmore).
It is not clear when the castle was completed, but it was identified as a potentially useful stronghold by the earl of Argyll in 1639 in the preliminaries of the War of the Three Kingdoms3 and reportedly burned in 1646 by the MacNabs, after the clan sided with Montrose.
A hoard of 87 copper coins from the reign of Charles II were found at the site, presumably hidden well after the castle fell into disuse4.
A more recent development of interest to environmental historians is the clear evidence of beaver activity on the island.
References
- Murray and Pullar, Bathymetrical Survey of the Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland, 1897-1909, Vol II, p74 – retrieved from https://maps.nls.uk/bathymetric/text/page/917
- Breadalbane Muniments, NRS, GD112/10/1/1/1
- Breadalbane Muniments, NRS, GD112/39/69/6
- Place, Mrs and Ross, T. (1906) ‘Notice of the exploration of the castle on the Isle of Loch Dochart, Perthshire’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol. 40, 1905-6
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