Strome, the castle of Loch Carron

role and history

Abstract

Few major castles of the western seaboard of the Highlands and Islands have received less attention than Strome on Loch Carron. This essay attempts to rectify this by looking at its history through pursuing certain themes, under subheadings. It begins by examining the castle’s importance, looking at its location and function in which symbolism and, most probably, economics played essential parts. The article then provides a record of who held the castle from 1472, the year it is first mentioned in written sources. It shows that there were times when its traditional owners, the MacDonalds, sometimes had legal title but continued, as far as can be inferred, in occupation, either directly or through constables, during periods when the castle had been sequestrated by the crown or granted to others. This reflects that the crown and its lieutenants saw Strome to be a powerful base which, in recalcitrant hands, had to be neutralised. At the same time, it shows the value placed upon it by the MacDonalds, first of Lochalsh and later of Glengarry. The analysis then moves to the castle’s military role, first by looking at its place in the MacDonalds’ strategy to retain control of their lands in these western areas of the earldom of Ross, then moving on to its more immediate place in warfare when it was attacked. It concludes with the confrontation with the Mackenzies of Kintail, when, despite a tenacious defence, the MacDonalds were compelled to cede the castle at the end of the 16th century. That it was not then simply taken over by the Mackenzies is significant: the castle and MacDonald hegemony of Lochcarron had come to be inseparable. Its destruction was a Mackenzie imperative and so they blew up part of it with gunpowder.

Canmore ID 99579