Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle stands on Strone Point, a promontory reaching into Loch Ness near Drumnadrochit, where it commanded the Great Glen for centuries. The surviving ruins were raised between the 13th and 16th centuries, most likely soon after Alexander II granted the site to Thomas de Lundin around 1229. Its strategic position made it a prize during the Wars of Independence: Edward I seized it in the 1290s, and Robert Bruce later took it back. Through the 14th and 15th centuries the MacDonald Lords of the Isles raided it repeatedly, and in 1545 the so-called Great Raid stripped the castle and drove off some two thousand cattle. In 1509 the crown granted Urquhart to John Grant on condition that he repair and rebuild it, and the five-storey Grant Tower that dominates the site belongs to this later phase. Garrisoned against the Jacobites in the 1690s, part of the castle was deliberately destroyed in 1692 to deny it to rebel forces; a storm brought down more of the tower in 1715. Thereafter left to decay, it passed into a picturesque ruin and is today cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, ranking among Scotland’s most visited monuments.