page_title: Clan MacDougall
section_title: Castles
hierarchical_section_title: Clan MacDougall / Castles
caption_attribution_description: English: Gylen Castle A sixteenth century castle that presents a forbidding appearance to any attacker coming from the sea, the main method of transport at the time. However, it almost inevitably proved vulnerable to siege and the Royalists surrendered to the covenanters on a false promise of clemency. The castle was torched and the defenders slaughtered.
context_page_description: Clan MacDougall is a Highland Scottish clan, historically based in and around Argyll. The Lord Lyon King of Arms who is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of coats of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, recognizes under Scottish law the Chief of Clan MacDougall. The MacDougall chiefs share a common ancestry with the chiefs of Clan Donald in descent from Somerled of the 12th century. In the 13th century the Clan MacDougall whose chiefs were the original Lords of Argyll and later Lords of Lorne was the most powerful clan in the Western Highlands. During the Wars of Scottish Independence the MacDougalls sided with the Clan Comyn whose chiefs rivaled Robert the Bruce for the Scottish Crown and this resulted in clan battles between the MacDougalls and Bruce. This marked the MacDougall's fall from power and led to the rise of their relatives, the Clan Donald, who had supported Bruce and also the rise to power of the Clan Campbell who were the habitual enemies of the MacDougalls and Clan Donald.
context_section_description: Castles built or owned by the Clan MacDougall have included amongst many others:
  Dunollie Castle near Oban, Argyll. There are now the remains of a strong but ruinous tower and other buildings that are overgrown. The site has actually been fortified since the days of the kings of Dál Riata in the sixth and seventh centuries. The present castle was built by the MacDougalls of Lorn. The Brooch of Lorn, which is said to have been captured from Robert the Bruce by the MacDougalls was kept at Dunollie Castle. The castle was attacked by Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell in 1644 and in 1647 it was besieged by a Covenanter army under General David Leslie, in which in the castle was sacked and burnt. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the castle was attacked again when the MacDougalls supported the Stewarts and as a result the lands were forfeited. However, the lands were restored in 1745 and in 1746 the MacDougalls built nearby Dunollie House, although there was an earlier house there dating from about 1600, and the old castle was abandoned. The castle is now in a dangerous condition but is still owned by the MacDougalls.
  Dunstaffnage Castle, three and a half miles north-east of Oban, Argyll is a large courtyard castle with a high curtain wall, and later gatehouse range. The kings of Dál Riata also had a strong hold there. The Stone of Scone (or Stone of Destiny) is also said to have been kept at the castle. The present castle was built by the MacDougalls and was besieged by Robert the Bruce after the MacDougalls were defeated at the Battle of the Pass of Brander in 1309. The Bruce then made it a royal castle with the Campbells as the keepers. There is also a chapel nearby that dates from the thirteenth century. The castle is now in the care of Historic Scotland.
  Gylen Castle, on the south coast of Kerrera is a small tower house that was and still is a property of the MacDougalls. An earlier castle on the site was where Alexander II of Scotland may have died during an expedition to recover the Western Isles in the mid-thirteenth century. The current castle was completed by Duncan MacDougall in 1582. It was however torched (along with Dunollie Castle) by the Covenanters under General David Leslie in 1647.
  Cairnburgh Castle, on the Treshnish Isles, off the Isle of Mull, is a ruinous castle once held by the MacDougalls that passed to the Crown with the MacDougalls as keepers in 1309.
  Dunchonnel Castle, on the Garvellach Isles is a ruinous castle that was once held by the MacDougalls.
  Coeffin Castle, on the Isle of Lismore is a ruinous castle once held by the MacDougalls.
  Duart Castle, on Mull. The castle was probably built by the MacDougalls in the 13th century, and came into the possession of the MacLeans in the fourteenth century.
  Mingary Castle in Lochaber. The castle may have been built by the MacDougalls in the 13th century. As such it would appear to exemplify the northern extension of clan's power from the 12th century.
caption: Gylen Castle, a MacDougall property
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