The Campbells won out and the Mclains were eventually dispossessed in 1626. More trouble was brewing, this time between the Maclains and the Campbells. The MacIain heir was a woman, Mariada, who in 1540 sold her claim to Ardnamurchan to the Earl of Argyll. In 1519 the MacIains tried to regain Mingary, but the clan chief was killed in the attempt. The MacDonalds razed the castle and destroyed MacIain lands in Ardnamurchan. In 1515 the MacDonalds of Lochalsh besieged Mingary, and the castle fell to them two years later. The castle receives its second mention during the period when the MacIains’ star was rising within the MacDonalds’ Lordship of the Isles, when John MacIain received a charter from James IV granting him the lands of Ardnamurchan and the “castle and fortalice of Mingary”. By that time Mingary had been in the hands of the MacIains since the early 1300s. The first record of Mingary is in 1495, when James IV stayed at “the castle of Meware in Ardnamurchan”. Bruce's descendant, David II granted the estates of Ardnamurchan to his supporters of Clan MacIain
The MacDougall lords did not have long to enjoy their fortress, for after they opposed Robert the Bruce in his ultimately successful bid for the crown of Scotland. This was probably a timber structure, but in 1265 the MacDougalls rebuilt the castle in stone. The first castle at Mingary was built in the late 12th or early 13th century, in a location perfectly suited to control the entrance to Loch Sunart and observe shipping across the Sound of Mull. With evidence of human habitation that goes back around 4,000 years it’s always been an ideal base for overseeing activities in Mull, Skye, the Argyll coast and Western Isles.
The fact that it’s a westerly peninsula with poor land access made it a highly desirable strategic stronghold for the ‘power barons’ of the past.
Ardnamurchan wasn’t always the peaceful corner of Scotland it is today.
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