Qualla: Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Blueye, Public domain. The garrison that destroyed Urquhart Castle did so on orders. In 1692, with the Jacobite cause still smoldering across the Highlands, the government decided that this fortress on Loch Ness must not fall into rebel hands again. Soldiers packed the gatehouse with gunpowder and brought it down, leaving the ruins that visitors see today. It was the final act in a history of siege, seizure, and strategic calculation stretching back at least to the sixth century -- a history in which the castle changed hands so many times that keeping track requires a scorecard and a tolerance for ambiguity.

Read more: Urquhart Castle on Qualla

Image: Blueye | Public domain

Urquhart Castle: The Promontory and the Picts

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bewahrerderwerte, CC BY-SA 4.0. Urquhart Castle sits on Strone Point, a triangular headland on the northwestern shore of Loch Ness, commanding both the route along the Great Glen and the entrance to Glen Urquhart. The name itself is ancient: it derives from the seventh-century form Airdchartdan, a blend of Old ...

Read more: Urquhart Castle on Qualla

Image: Bewahrerderwerte | CC BY-SA 4.0

Urquhart Castle: The Castle That Could Not Stay in One Hand

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stuart Yeates from Oxford, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. The stone castle was probably built in the mid-thirteenth century after Alexander II granted the lands to his door-ward Thomas de Lundin, whose son Alan Durward constructed the original fortification centered on a motte at the southwest corner. From that point, Urquhart's history...

Read more: Urquhart Castle on Qualla

Image: Stuart Yeates from Oxford, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Urquhart Castle: The Grants and the Tower

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Drkirstyross, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1509, James IV granted Urquhart to John Grant of Freuchie on the condition that he repair and rebuild the castle. The Grants did precisely that, and the five-storey Grant Tower at the castle's northern tip -- the most prominent feature of the ruins today -- is largely their wo...

Read more: Urquhart Castle on Qualla

Image: Drkirstyross | CC BY-SA 3.0

Urquhart Castle: Ruin and Revival

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wknight94, CC BY-SA 3.0. For nearly two centuries after the demolition, Urquhart decayed into the romantic ruin that attracted nineteenth-century painters and tourists on Highland excursions. The southern wall of the Grant Tower collapsed in a storm in the early eighteenth century, opening the interior t...

Read more: Urquhart Castle on Qualla

Image: Wknight94 | CC BY-SA 3.0