Dunaverty Castle Dunaverty Castle is located at Southend at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula in western Scotland . The site was once a fort belonging to the Clan Donald ( MacDonald ) . Little remains of the castle , although the site is protected as a scheduled monument . History . The remains of Dunaverty Castle stand on a rocky head land on the south east corner of Kintyre , Scotland . The headland it was built on forms a natural stronghold with the sea on three sides and is only approachable from the north . It is attached to the mainland only by a narrow path . It is known that the castle itself was accessed by a drawbridge . 13th Century . In 1248 King Henry III of England allowed Walter Bissett to buy stores from Ireland for Dunaverty Castle which he had seized and was fortifying , apparently in revenge for hospitality given by King Alexander II of Scotland to certain English pirates . However during that same year the castle was taken by Allan , the son of the Earl of Atholl and Bissett was taken prisoner . In 1263 Dunaverty Castle was garrisoned by King Alexander III of Scotland during the Norse invasion by King Haakon IV of Norway . The castle was eventually surrendered to the Norwegian King . Eventually Haakon gave the castle to Dugald MacRuairi , who was a steadfast supporter of his in the Hebrides . The castle is believed to have soon become property of Alexander MacDonald of Islay . 14th century . It is believed that King Robert I of Scotland , also known as Robert the Bruce , escaped his enemies by sailing down the Firth of Clyde until he reached safety at Dunaverty Castle . There he spent several days hospitably entertained by Angus Og of Islay . The King of Scotland however soon needed to flee to Rathlin Island off the coast of Ireland in order to escape the pursuing English fleet . On the 22 September 1306 the English King ordered the employment of miners , crossbowmen and masons in the siege of Dunaverty Castle which was soon surrendered to Sir Henry de Percy , 1st Baron Percy . 15th Century . In 1493 the fourth and last Lord of the Isles forfeited his title to King James IV of Scotland . By 1494 the King had garrisoned and provisioned Dunaverty Castle . It is said that the MacDonalds . led by Sir John MacDonald who the king had recently knighted , retook the castle before the King had even departed to Stirling and that the dead body of the King ' s castle governor was hung over the castle walls in sight of the King and his departing entourage . Sir John Macdonald however was later captured by MacIain of Ardnamurchan . He was tried and hanged on the Burgh Muir near Edinburgh . 16th Century . The castle was repaired by the crown between 1539 and 1542 . In January 1544 , a Commission in Queen Mary ' s name was given to the Captain , Constable and Keeper of the Castle of Dunaverty , to deliver it with its artillery and ammunition to the Earl of Argyll and in April of that year Argyll received a 12 - year tack of North and South Kintyre , including the castle . The castle was attacked by the Earl of Surrey in 1588 but no damage was done . 17th Century . In 1626 , the Lordship of Kintyre was reconstituted in favour of the Earl of Argyll and Dunaverty Castle was denoted as its principal messuage . Argyll bestowed the Lordship of Kintyre on James , his eldest son by his second marriage , who , in 1635 , at Dunaverty , granted a charter of the Lordship to Viscount Dunluce , eldest son of Randal MacDonnell , 1st Earl of Antrim . The transfer was set aside by the Scottish Privy Council , no doubt on a complaint by Argyll ' s eldest son , the Marquis of Lorn , who had bitterly resented his father ' s bestowal of the Lordship on his younger half - brother . On 12 December 1636 , Lorn received a charter , under the Great Seal , of the Lordship of Kintyre , with the Castle of Dunaverty as its principal messuage . During the Civil War Dunaverty was besieged in 1647 by Scottish supporters of Oliver Cromwell who were led by General David Leslie ( Leslie later became a Royalist ) . The MacDonalds surrendered and then 300 of them were massacred . This incident became known as the Battle of Dunaverty , or " Dunaverty Massacre " . The castle is nothing more than a ruin now , known as Blood Rock for the massacre which took place there .