Finlarig Castle

Finlarig Castle is a ruined tower house and courtyard on top of a hill at the southern end of Loch Earn. There is a car park for visitors, but this and the castle itself are not signposted. The castle was built by Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy on land that had belonged to the family for about a century, but the exact date is unknown. The 1609 datestone is certainly too late. The plan as understood today is a Z-plan tower house, with diagonally opposing square towers on a central hall block, but Pont’s image of c1590-1600 doesn’t match this at all, making the early history of the castle hazy.

The castle remained one of the principal seats of the Campbells of Glenorchy, and was garrisoned during the civil war of the 1640s. In 1651 a parliament was even held here! Under Cromwell the estate did suffer damage, but this did not seemingly extend to the castle, which was used by “slippery John” Campbell during the Jacobite period, who died in 1717. The castle was in ruins by the 1790s and may have been damaged after Culloden, although it appears to have been intact on Roy’s map of c1750.  Outside the ruin is a 19th century Campbell mausoleum and a cistern which was within the courtyard; the grounds are irregularly maintained.

HES Canmore database entry