Dunstaffnage saw action during the Civil War, holding out against Montrose's army in 1644. The castle was burned by royalist troops, following the failure of Argyll's Rising in 1685, against the Catholic James VII. During the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, the castle was occupied by government troops. Flora MacDonald, who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from Scotland, was briefly imprisoned here while "en route" to imprisonment in London.