Lochnaw Castle

Lochnaw Castle
Near Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
UK grid reference NW991628

The tower in 2007
Lochnaw Castle
Coordinates 54°55′11″N 5°08′04″W / 54.919786°N 5.134404°W / 54.919786; -5.134404
Type Tower house
Site information
Owner Private
Open to
the public
No
Condition Preserved
Site history
Built 16th century; extended in 17th and 18th centuries
Materials Stone

Lochnaw Castle is a 16th-century tower house five miles from the town of Stranraer, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The spectacularly located "castle" incorporates a fortalice torhous. The "central" square tower 5 stories high formed part of the "New" Castle.

Lochnaw Castle, c.1893

Lochnaw Castle shows four periods of construction - a simple 16th-century keep, 17th- and 18th-century domestic dwellings, and a mansion-house, which was later demolished. There is a plaque bearing the date 1486, on the SE wall of the keep. A chapel, built in 1704, was demolished c. 1953.[1]

An earlier, ruined castle stands on an island in the nearby Lochnaw Loch. A royal castle, this was given to the Agnews in 1363, but was sacked by Archiblad The Grim, 3rd Earl of Douglas in 1390, and subsequently dismantled.[2]

The Agnews held the new castle until the end of the 20th century. The castle, located by the loch, is occupied as a private residence.

References

  1. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS)
  2. Castles of the Clans; Martin Coventry
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