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Carrick Castle
Carrick Castle tower from west.jpg
Carrick Castle being restored, 2019
General information
Type Tower House
Location Cowal Peninsula, Argyll and Bute.
Town or city Carrick Castle (village)
Country Scotland, United Kingdom
Coordinates 56°06′31″N 4°54′20″W / 56.108742°N 4.9054980°W / 56.108742; -4.9054980, National
Construction started 14th Century
Height 64ft
Technical details
Material Stone
Floor count 2

Carrick Castle is a 14th-century tower house on the west shore of Loch Goil on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located between Cuilmuich and Carrick, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Lochgoilhead.

The castle stands on a rocky peninsula, and was formerly defended to landward by a ditch and drawbridge. The building is around 66 by 38 feet (20 by 12 m), and up to 64 feet (20 m) high with walls seven feet thick. It consists of two floors above the central great hall and stands 64 feet high. There is a curiosity – a small chimney is built into a window recess. There is an appendage of a smaller 17th Century structure to the original rectangular tower house. The structure has been designated a scheduled monument and a Category A listed building by Historic Environment Scotland.

Modern-day houses in the surrounding area take the name Carrick Castle.

History

The castle was probably built by the Campbells in the last decades of the fourteenth century, at a point of time when the family was dominant in the area.

It was used as a hunting lodge by James IV. Mary, Queen of Scots visited in 1563.

Carrick Castle, Lochgoil (i.e. Loch Goil), Scotland-LCCN2002695018
The ruin of Carrick Castle around 1890, with pier attracting tourism
Carrick Castle tower, Loch Goil
Carrick Castle in 2019, under restoration and re-roofed.

During Argyll's Rising in 1685, when Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, attempted to overthrow King James VII, captain Thomas Hamilton of HMS Kingfisher reported that the castle had been burnt and walls reduced sufficiently to make it useless to the Campbell forces. Legend has it that the ship bombarded the castle, badly damaging the keep, which lost its roof.

The castle was intermittently occupied until it was sold to the Murrays, the Earls of Dunmore.

The keep was a ruin for many years but is now in private ownership and undergoing restoration.

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