Carnasserie Castle

Carnasserie Castle is a very important ruined tower house built in the 16th century for the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles on lands granted to him by the earl of Argyll. The building is large and impressive, and was perhaps funded by the earl, since the Bishop’s financial circumstances were not sufficient for the building.

The castle consists of two main elements, a squarish tower-keep with a small projecting wing containing a winding stair, and a hall block with its own, more prominent stair wing. The hall had three vaulted cellars with a corridor in front connecting the entrance in the larger stair wing with the square tower. Above the whole main floor of the hall block was taken up with a single hall, with the first floor room in the square tower as a withdrawing chamber. Above were bedrooms, but the layout of this floor has to be conjectural. In addition there was a walled courtyard, the gateway of which survives.

Bishop John Carswell, who the castle was erected for, died in 1572, at which point the castle seems to have returned to the ownership of the earl of Argyll. In 1643 Carnasserie was granted to the Campbells of Auchinbreck, who carried out modernisations to the windows, but it was besieged and damaged in a siege of 1685 and never repaired, being sold to the Kilmartin Campbells in 1699. In the 19th century the castle was purchased by the Malcolms of Poltalloch, and was incorporated into a wides parkland landscape.

Official Historic Scotland page

HES Canmore database entry