Qualla: Dunyvaig Castle https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/s/dunyvaig-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Dunyvaig Castle https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle Dunyvaig Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle/ Photo credit David Hallett, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk down to the shore at Lagavulin on Islay's south coast and the castle is right there, ruined and stubborn on a rocky promontory above the bay. The Lagavulin distillery sits just behind it - the same name, the same hollow in the land - and between them runs the small road from Port Ellen to Ardbeg. The castle's Gaelic name, Dun Naomhaig, means the Fort of the Galleys. That tells you almost everything about what this place was. Whoever held Dunyvaig held the southern approach to Islay, and whoever held Islay held the most populous and prosperous island in the Lordship of the Isles.

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Image: David Hallett | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/s/dunyvaig-castle-wp/gcgs-dunyvaig-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Dunyvaig Castle: The Fort of the Galleys https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle/ Photo credit Eberhard Kaiser, CC BY-SA 2.5. The original purpose was simple. A galley was the long, low, oar-and-sail warship that the Norse and the Gaels both used in Hebridean waters from roughly the eighth to the seventeenth century. Faster than a modern sailboat under oar power, manoeuvrable in inshore channels, capabl...

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Image: Eberhard Kaiser | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/s/dunyvaig-castle-wp/gcgs-dunyvaig-castle-the-fort-of-the-galleys.mp3 0:06 2 full Dunyvaig Castle: The Year Nothing Held https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle/ Photo credit Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0. Between August 1608 and October 1615 Dunyvaig changed hands at least five times. In 1608 Angus MacDonald, eighth of Dunnyveg, surrendered the castle to Andrew Stuart, Lord Ochiltree, and Andrew Knox, Bishop of the Isles, who had arrived with a thousand men and a royal naval squad...

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Image: Otter | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/s/dunyvaig-castle-wp/gcgs-dunyvaig-castle-the-year-nothing-held.mp3 0:06 3 full Dunyvaig Castle: The Letter Knox Wrote https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle/ Photo credit Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the dust settled on the 1614 disaster, Andrew Knox sat down to write a long letter explaining himself. He was at Brodick Castle on Arran, his son and nephew still held hostage on Islay, and accusations of sloth and incompetence were reaching Edinburgh. The letter survives, a...

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Image: Otter | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/s/dunyvaig-castle-wp/gcgs-dunyvaig-castle-the-letter-knox-wrote.mp3 0:06 4 full Dunyvaig Castle: After https://qualla.com/dunyvaig-castle/ Photo credit Chris Heaton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Campbells held Dunyvaig until 1647, when the Covenanters seized it during the Civil Wars. It passed to the Campbells of Cawdor, who held it until 1677. In that year Sir Hugh Campbell pulled the castle down and moved his household to Islay House, the more comfortable Georgian ...

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Image: Chris Heaton | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/s/dunyvaig-castle-wp/gcgs-dunyvaig-castle-after.mp3 0:06 5 full