Ardmaddy Castle

Ardmaddy Castle is an occupied mansion in a remote location near the west coast of Argyll. It can be seen from the public roads, but appears as an uninteresting large house from that viewpoint. The gardens of Ardmaddy have been opened to the public in the past, and the estate does offer accommodation, but not in the castle itself. The oldest part of the building is a strong rectangular tower with two vaulted basements and a corridor in front that have been considered as late 15th century, and which form the rear of the mansion. This was extended in the 18th century with two projecting wings, and again in the 19th with a (now vanished) large baronial extension. It is therefore the case that the oldest part of the building is what can be seen from the road, although it is extremely spartan in appearance.

Tradition asserts that Ardmaddy was “probably” built by the MacDougalls of Raera, a principal branch of the family headed up by the lords of Lorne who opposed Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Independence. A group of lands in Kilninver which included Raera were granted to Dougall Campbell of Lochawe by Bruce in 1313, although Ardmaddy was not mentioned specifically. One would have thought that a place important enough to have had a stronghold of the MacDougalls would have merited mention, meaning that the vaulted tower was clearly not this early. Indeed, the grant to Campbell shows that Ardmaddy was certainly held by the Campbells from 1313 onwards, and that the MacDougalls must have held their lands from the Campbells, a fact reflected in the eventual seizure of Ardmaddy by the Campbell family after having burned it down in 1620. The intervening period, in which the castle of Ardmaddy was built, is particularly obscure. However, it is of importance to note that in the 1460s, when Earl Colin Campbell of Argyll agreed to defend the claims of Walter Stewart to succeed John Stewart as Lord of Lorne. In return for this, Walter agreed to give Earl Colin lands worth over a hundred merks – including those of Ardmaddy. In 1470, Walter resigned the title of Lord Lorne in favour of that of Lord Innermeath, Argyll gaining that of Lorne. As Argyll definitely held Ardmaddy at this time, I suspect that it was he that built the tower at Ardmaddy, and not the MacDougalls of Raera. However this matter deserves considerably more research to gain a firm answer.

Perhaps this was the reason that the family fought against the Campbell Marquis of Argyll in 1644. Either way, it seems likely that the Campbells rebuilt the place substantially from 1671, with much of the old building hidden architecturally. It may have passed to an offshoot of the Breadalbane Campbells via a marriage to one of Argyll’s daughters, although an exchange of lands in 1692 is also suggested. In the 20th century Ardmaddy was sold to the Struthers family, who live there today.

HES Canmore database entry
Official Ardmaddy Estate website