Location: Caisteal nan Con lies on the NE shore of the mile long (1.6 km) fertile island of Torsay between Luing and the mainland. Access to Torsa is by boat from Ardnamir Bay on the Isle of Luing. The castle overlooks Seil Sound and Ardmaddy Bay from its seat on a rocky ridge whose east end touches the high water mark. This Caisteal nan Con should not be confused with another castle of the same name to the north in Morvern. The Isle of Torsay was inhabited until the 1960s but now there is only one farmhouse on the island and it is used for holiday rentals.
Origin: Caisteal nan Con may be ascribed to the 16th or early 17th C. and though the exact date and builder are unknown tradition relates that it was built by the MacLeans. Caisteal nan Con was built on the lands called Torran Mor, the present 250 acre Torran Farm which covers the island.
The isle of Torsay (Torsa) in Netherlorn was Clan MacDougall land until their defeat by Robert the Bruce in 1308. In 1312, as Robert I King of Scots, he granted this land of the defeated MacDougalls to his supporter, Sir Dougal Campbell 6th of Craignish. This Sir Dougal’s daughter Christine would some twenty years later marry Ewan the eldest son of John of Lorne, the 5th MacDougall Chief. Torsay remained under Campbell jurisdiction up to the first half of the 16th century when the island then seems to have been held from the Campbells by the MacDougalls of Raera (Rarey). By then the MacDougall of Raera cadet family of the Clan MacDougall had become the principal force in Nether Lorn and remained close allies of the Campbells for a century. Next, in the second half of the 16th century, Torsa like the adjacent Isle of Luing was probably feued from the Campbells by the MacLeans of Duart from whom the castle may derive its present name of Caisteal nan Con (‘the Dogs’ Castle’). This name likely stems from its possession by the MacLeans of Duart whose enemies labeled them “the dogs” (Clan MacLean-Clann Illeathain nan Con)
Torsay evidently reverted to the MacDougalls early in the 17th C. when it was held by Allan MacDougall of Torsa. He was the second son of Duncan of Dunollie, 16th Chief of the Clan. The MacDougalls of Torsa are associated with the Island of Torsa and were the progenitors of the MacDougalls of Gallanach which was purchased from MacDougall of Dunollie in the year 1645 by the eldest son of John MacDougall of Torsa. The longstanding alliance between the MacDougalls of Raera and the Campbells ended in September 1645 when the MacDougalls refused to support the Campbells any longer in their Covenanter religious rebellion against the crown. After responding to the King Charles I’s September 1645 call for support from clans loyal to the crown, those loyal clans, including MacDougalls, soon faced defeat, merciless retribution, and devastation by June 1647 after he had surrendered to the Scots Covenanter army in 1646. By 1650 the 8th Earl of Argyll had confiscated the Raera lands. However, he never found the Charter Chest with its papers granting legal title to the Raera lands. As the Campbell party was approaching to take possession of Ardmaddy Castle, a blacksmith had thrown the Charter Chest out of a back window of the castle, whence it was carried away by a woman to Torsa and hidden in the safekeeping of the MacDougalls of Torsa.
Description:
Caisteal nan Con is late mediaeval, probably 15th C., oblong Tower House or Hall House an attached Barmekin. It is built with mortared joints upon a dyke of igneous rock, measuring about 80 ft. by 24 ft. (26m x 7.5m) perpendicular on all sides. The rock base varies in height from 8 or 10 ft. (2.5 or 3.1m) near the middle, to 20 ft. (6.5m) at the landward end, and 30 ft. (9.3m) towards the sea. The castle enclosed the entire area of the summit of the rock upon which it stands. A small oblong tower-house or hall-house occupied the upper and landward portion. The lower seaward portion of the dyke was occupied by an oblong Barmekin with a circular tower in the NE corner. The castle wall was constructed of carefully built stone and lime built up from the edge of the dyke base. The remains of the wall vary in height from a few feet to 6 or 9 ft. (2 to 3 m) and are overgrown with green turf in many places. The interior lower level measures 9 by 9 feet and is enclosed by walls varying from 6 to 12 feet thick. The Canmore database page NM71SE 3 76587 13608 of Historic Scotland describes the archaeology of the Caisteal nan Con:
Caisteal nan Con – ‘the Dogs’ Castle’ – occupies a small rocky eminence on the NE shore of the island of Torsa. The entire area of the rock summit was enclosed, the upper and landward portion being occupied by a small oblong tower-house, and the lower, seaward portion by an oblong bailey which incorporated a circular tower at the NE corner. The castle appears to have been approached by means of a footpath leading up to a point on the south side of the bailey. All the buildings are very ruinous and much overgrown with turf, but considerable portions of the external wall faces of the tower-house and bailey-survive.
The tower measured about 13.7 metres NE-SW by 8.8 metres but the thickness of the walls cannot be ascertained without excavation. Access from the bailey was evidently obtained by means of a doorway in the NE wall. The bailey measured 16.2 by 10.6 metres overall, the NE angle-tower having an external diameter of about 5.5 metres.
About 75 metres to the NE of the castle there is a small rocky inlet which probably served as a boat landing.
References:
1 – Technical information has been provided by the Canmore Database site of Historic Environment Scotland and their Caisteal nan Con site may be visited at: https://canmore.org.uk/site/22631/torsa-caisteal-nan-con
2 – See also the Gazetteer for Scotland site Caisteal nan Con at:
3 – Journeying in MacDougall Country by Walter M. Macdougall, Past President of the Clan MacDougall Society of North America on page 216 contains descriptions and notes on this site. This excellent book is available from Lulu.com with profits going to the Dunollie Preservation Fund from its book sales at http://www.lulu.com/shop/walter-macdougall/journeying-in-macdougall-country/paperback/product-2242050.html
4 – Proceedings Of The Society Of Antiquaries May 13, 1889, page 407, Vol. XXIII, Edinburgh.