Qualla: Dunure Castle

Dunure Castle: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Knox, CC BY-SA 2.0. Allan Stewart was the lay Commendator of Crossraguel Abbey - the post-Reformation administrator of what had been one of the great medieval religious houses of south-west Scotland. He held the title because his relative Captain James Stewart of Cardonald had pulled strings to get him appointed. He held it instead of Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassillis, who had expected to inherit it from his uncle Quintin, the last true abbot. Gilbert took it personally. In the late summer of 1570, with sixteen armed men at his back, the Earl caught Allan Stewart unexpectedly in Crossraguel Woods, where Stewart was a guest of the Laird of Bargany. They took his horse. They took his weapons. They took him to Dunure Castle.

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Image: Ian Knox | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dunure Castle: The Black Vault

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fraser Sutherland, CC BY 2.5. What happened next was deliberate and prolonged. Allan Stewart was confined and guarded by six of the Earl's men. For two days, Gilbert left him to think about his situation - to consider, the chronicles say, his fate - and to sign over the abbey lands and their rental income to ...

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Image: Fraser Sutherland | CC BY 2.5

Dunure Castle: The Rescue

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. Allan Stewart's brother-in-law, the Laird of Bargany - whose home Stewart had been visiting when he was abducted - did not let the matter rest. He gathered a body of armed men, hid first in the castle chapel, then stormed the keep and got Stewart out. The Earl's reprisals came la...

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Image: Gordon Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dunure Castle: Before the Cruelty: Kings and Queens

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KFCSpike, CC BY-SA 3.0. The site at Dunure predates the Kennedys by centuries. The earliest land charter dates from 1256, though the visible remains are 15th- and 16th-century. One tradition says the Danes built it. Another says the Mackinnons held it for Alexander III as reward for their valour at the ...

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Image: KFCSpike | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dunure Castle: The Demise

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dannie Calder, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 1694 Dunure was described as "wholly ruined." The cause is uncertain. Local tradition says it was burnt and blown up during the Civil War period; a major collapse of the south-eastern keep might support that. But the more prosaic answer is also documented: the castle was syste...

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Image: Dannie Calder | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dunure Castle: Browney's Cave and Kennedy Park

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit George Mahoney, CC BY-SA 2.0. Beneath the castle is a cavern called Browney's Cave, which may have been a sally-port - a secret tunnel for the garrison to use when an enemy held the front. There is a folk tale called "The Brownie of Dunure" in which Sir Thomas Kennedy of Dunure adopts the son of his neighbour...

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Image: George Mahoney | CC BY-SA 2.0