3-039-093 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Land of Lorne: Ardtornish Castle, 1871. View of '...the ruins of Ardtornish, on the coast of Morven, which belonged to the Lord of the Isles five or six hundred years ago. Ardtornish Castle was not, in fact, built till 1340, though Sir Walter Scott has made its festal halls, prepared for the marriage of Edith of Lorne to Ronald of the Isles, the opening scene of his chivalrous romance, the date ascribed to its events being 1307. The situation of this ancient feudal stronghold, at the southeastern entrance to the narrow Sound or Strait of Mull, is highly picturesque; on one hand is a range of steep rocks or cliffs, overhanging the sea; on the other is the mouth of Loch Alline, a small salt-water lake, the banks of which are fringed with copse-wood. It looks up and down the Sound, to Aros and Duart, other fortresses of the Lord of the Isles in Mull, by means of which the passage was kept quite under his command. He used, no doubt, to levy a considerable toll upon all vessels going that way. The outer course, round the island of Mull to the west, is circuitous, and often dangerous for small craft, though it takes Iona on its way'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.