Where
is Urquart Castle
On the banks of Loch Ness, about two miles from Drumnadrochit.
The castle is a ruin as it was blown up in 1692
Who owns it today
Historic Scotland maintain the castle today. It is open
all year round.
The history of the castle
Originally a Norman castle, being erected in the early
13th century on an earlier wooden fort.
During Robert the Bruce's war against the English, in the period betwen 1296 and 1308, it went from English to Scots to English and back to Scots control. The Scottish Crown appointed a number of keepres, but in 1452 the Campbells, in support of the ‘Black Douglas’ rebellion, took the castle, and the Crown had to recognise tem as the castle keepers
However within a few years it passed back to the Scottish Crown, was taken by the MacDonalds in 1513, who held it for just three years. But the MacDonalds took the castle again in 1545.
It was then plundered and badly damaged by the Covenanter's in 1644, but repaired in 1676 and garrisoned. A whig garrison held out for 2 years against the Jacobites in 1689.
Finally in 1691, to prevent it being used as a Jacobite base, Urquhart was blown up by the government.
By 1708 it was being used by the local people as a quarry, a ready source of dressed stone for building
