Airds Castle
Airds Castle is a ruined castle near the village of Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula in the Scottish administrative division of Argyll and Bute . The castle was on the top of a rocky spur between Carradale Harbor and Port Righ Bay.
history
The exact construction time of the castle is not known, but all of the remains that are still visible today probably date from the late Middle Ages . Presumably, the area came into the possession of the Scottish Crown in the late 15th century after John, Lord of the Isles , forfeited it.
King James IV had the castle of Ardcardle (Airds) fortified in 1498 and lent it with other lands to a landowner in Argyll , Sir Adam Reid from Stairquhite and Barskimming . In the middle of the 16th century these lands belonged to Baronie Bar of the McDonalds of Dunnyveg , but in 1605 they reverted to the Reids from Barskimming.
description
Today only the remains of the curtain wall remain from the castle , which once enclosed the entire summit of the rock spur with an area of 67 meters × 24 meters. In the northwest, a wide moat with a level floor protected the complex, while the terrain slopes steeply on all other sides. The main entrance was probably on the west side of the castle and was reached via a steep path up the rock spur. A prominent gap in the curtain wall on the opposite side could indicate the location of a sideline gate .
The remains of the curtain wall are 1.5 meters thick and are now up to 3.4 meters high. There are no more traces of any existing buildings in the courtyard today.
swell
- Andrew McKerral: Kintyre in the 17th Century . 1948.
- Airds Castle . Canmore. 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
Coordinates: 55 ° 35 ′ 22 " N , 5 ° 27 ′ 42" W.