Ardfad Castle

Ardfad Castle is a badly ruined hall house and courtyard erected on a strongly defensive crag on the Seil peninsular south of Oban. The main building is a rectangular hall house, considered to be probably of the 16th century, with a round tower at the west angle, and which straddles the full width of the crag. The tallest fragment of this building is the north-west gable, which stands in part to about 1.5 metres high and contains some evidence of a recess – perhaps a fireplace. At the south-eastern corner there is evidence of a rectangular projection, perhaps a garderobe was sited above. Narrow slit windows, referred to as “arrow slits” in the 19th century have now vanished. The courtyard to the north-east is angular and the wall follows the contours of the crag. At most this stands to 1.2 metres high and is less than a metre thick.

The history of the castle is unknown. However the area was held by the MacDougalls as tenants of the Campbells of Glenyon, Dougall Campbell of Lochawe having been granted the lands by Robert Bruce in 1313. This branch of the MacDougall clan is believed to have been descended from the MacDougalls of Raera, but their descent is unclear really. The general belief of a late 16th or early 17th century origin for the castle would place it in the time of one of two John MacDougalls, he who died in 1615, or his son. It seems probable that the castle fell into disuse or disrepair during the upheavals of the mid 17th century, when the Campbells and their supporters were targeted heavily by royalists, or the early Jacobite revolts. The family chose to erect a new home, Ardencaple House, in the eighteenth century.

HES Canmore database entry