[MR] Scottish Island with Castle for Sale

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Yesterday I learned that the Scottish island of Torsa (old name "Torsay")
is for sale. If you have a cool  £1.5 million sitting in your jeans pocket,
Torsa could be yours, complete with a farmhouse and ruined castle
(mandatory SCA-period content). If your purse isn't that deep, you can
still dream. And the farmhouse is available for holiday-lets.

Torsa lies just off the coast of Argyle and is part of the Inner Hebrides.
It is about 280 acres of uninhabited grazing land and a lot of rocks, with
the farmhouse and what is left of the castle. It has not had permanent
residents since the 1960s.

Now to some interesting history. The island was part of the dark ages Irish
kingdom of Dalriada. It was later occupied by Vikings, who probably gave it
the original form of its current name. In Old Norse it probably meant
"Thorir's Island" or "Thor's Island", and the name stuck. By the 13th
century it was in the hands of the powerful Clan MacDougall. During the
later middle ages after the rebellious MacDougalls were subdued
by King James IV, Torsa passed to Clan Campbell, then back to the
MacDougalls, followed by the MacLeans. Out of our period, it again came
under ownership of the Campbells through the Dukes of Argyle, next the
Campbells of Breadalbane, and today the Struthers family.

All that flopping around with the ownership possibly explains the castle,
as real estate in the Hebrides during the middle ages didn't often change
with a deed, but rather by deeds, and often rather bloody deeds at that.
The site apparently first saw a dark ages hill fort. A castle on the site
probably dates from the first Campbell occupation. According to the
authoritative Canmore historical site, the current castle probably dates
from about 1690 (Poop!, but it is still a real castle). It is called *Caisteal
nan Con*, which translates from the Gaelic as "The Dog's Castle". That
probably refers to the MacLeans, who were contemptuously considered little
better than dogs by their enemies. The castle is a typical Scottish tower
house sited on a small, but very defensible crag near the northeastern
shore, which was additionally fortified by a bailey wall. There isn't much
left of the castle today.

If you would like to read about Torsa, go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsa .

Views of the castle are at
https://canmore.org.uk/site/22258/caisteal-nan-con?display=image .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.