Qualla: Lochranza Castle

Lochranza Castle: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0. From the road into Lochranza, the castle appears all at once - a ruined L-plan tower house standing on a flat spit of land between the head of the sea loch and the steep glen behind. There is no village wall, no fortification, no commanding ridge. The castle simply sits where it has always sat, half in water, half on rock, at the northern tip of the Isle of Arran. Most of what stands today is sixteenth-century work, raised on the foundations of something far older. The stones have outlasted three dynasties, an English occupation, a Norse claim, and a comic-book mix-up that fans still argue about.

Read more: Lochranza Castle on Qualla

Image: Colin Park | CC BY-SA 2.0

Lochranza Castle: MacSweens and Menteith

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Sell Cotman, Public domain. The earliest castle here dates from the 13th century, when the site was held by the MacSweens, a powerful kindred whose lands stretched along the western seaboard. In 1262, King Alexander III granted the castle and its lands to Walter Stewart, the Earl of Menteith - a redistribut...

Read more: Lochranza Castle on Qualla

Image: John Sell Cotman | Public domain

Lochranza Castle: The Tower in Stone

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Raibeart MacAoidh, CC BY-SA 2.0. The castle as it stands now is essentially a 16th-century L-plan tower house - two rectangular blocks meeting at right angles, with the entrance protected at the inner corner. The thick walls were designed for defence with firearms, not arrows, and the building has the unmistakab...

Read more: Lochranza Castle on Qualla

Image: Raibeart MacAoidh | CC BY-SA 2.0

Lochranza Castle: The Black Island That Wasn't

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phil Sangwell from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0. In 1937, the Belgian cartoonist Hergé sent Tintin to Scotland in 'The Black Island,' giving his hero a brooding castle on an island off the coast to investigate. For decades, Lochranza was identified as the model. The misunderstanding endured even after Hergé's own studio said ot...

Read more: Lochranza Castle on Qualla

Image: Phil Sangwell from United Kingdom | CC BY 2.0

Lochranza Castle: A Promontory in Care

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kangarooth, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today Lochranza Castle is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, a scheduled monument open to visitors year-round at no charge. The interior is open to the sky; staircases lead nowhere; small chambers hold nothing but the wind and whatever weather is coming off the loch. A...

Read more: Lochranza Castle on Qualla

Image: Kangarooth | CC BY-SA 4.0