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A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DUART CASTLE AND ITS HISTORY

Almost certainly there was a castle on this site before the oldest walls of the present building were put up in the mid thirteenth century. The position of Duart was well chosen: it is sited on a high crag at the end of a peninsula (its name Dubh Ard is Gaelic and means "Black Point") jutting out into the Sound of Mull. Thus it commands the channel between Mull and the mainland, the entrances of lochs Linnhe and Etive, and the neck of the Firth of Lorne as it meets the Sound of Mull. Such a site must have been of great importance when Norse and Viking raiders made forays to the Western Isles and Highlands. Its strategic position was later used by the Lord of the Isles who led the loose alliance of west coast chiefs who built eight castles on each side of the Sound, all within sight of their neighbors. Thus a beacon signal could be transmitted from Mingary Castle on Ardnamurchan Point via six others (one of them Duart) to Dunollie Castle close to Oban on the Firth of Lorne.

The clan name Macâlean means "Son of Gillean", and it takes this from a thirteenth century warrior , Gillean of the Battle-Axe, who was related to the kings of the ancient province of Dalriada. The first recorded mention of the MacLeans of Duartis in a papal dispensation of 1367 which allowed their Chief Lachlan Lubanach MacLean to marry the daughter of the Lord of the Isles, Mary MacDonald. This it is said was a love match, and her father was persuaded to allow it only after he had been kidnapped by Lachlan (an incident in which the Chief of the Mackinnons was killed). Thus the MacLeans came to own much of Mull, the Mackinnon lands being granted to them by the MacDonalds as a dowry. Almost certainly, Lachlan built the keep that stands today (the first recorded mention of Duart was in 1390) though the great curtain walls are probably of the previous century. On more venerable, landward side, these are 9 metres high and nearly 3 metres thick. A deep ditch was cut from solid rock beyond them as an outer defense-work. The walls facing the sea are less thick, ranging from 1.8 to 2.4 metres.

The MacDonalds, Lord of the Isles, dominated the Hebrides until the sixteenth century, and the MacLeans of Duart were loyal supporters of their regime. These were violent times, punctuated by inter-clan feuds in which picturesque characters such as Iain the Toothless Maclaine of Lochbuie (a branch of Clan MacLean) might be engaged in bloody rivalry with his son, Eachuin of the Little Head, a conflict which would inevitably involve neighboring clans. In this instance Eachuin was killed and is his ghost, "The Headless Horseman", who rides to presage the death of the Maclaine Chieftain at Lochbuie. Iain the Toothless was subsequently captured by Hector, the MacLean Chief of the time and imprisoned on the island of Cairnburg, far away from all women so that he would not produce an heir. His only female contact was a maidservant so ugly that Hector thought an alliance with her was improbable if not impossible. Yet Iain the Toothless managed to get his heir "Murdoch the Stunted" who after many escapades eventually returned to Mull to carry on the succession of the Maclaines of Lochbuie.

King James IV visited the Highlands and islands and received nominal submission from the chiefs, including Hector Odhar MacLean of Duart. He and others fought and died for James at the Battle of Flodden against the English in 1513. At this time the Campbells of Argyll were useful allies, and ties with this powerful family were strengthened by marriage, though in one instance this was to prove disastrous to the MacLeans. Lachlan MacLean of Duart took Campbellâs sister Catherine, as his second wife. However she failed to produce an heir for him and in frustration he abandoned her on a rock that he knew would be well covered by the incoming tide. Before the water covered the rock, some passing fishermen saw her and returned her to her brother. Meanwhile MacLean had sorrowfully reported her death to the Earl. The Campbells soon took their revenge; in 1523 Lachlan was "dirked in bed" while on a visit to Edinburgh. The rock on which Lady Catherine was marooned can be seen at low tide from Duart and is known as The Lady Rock.

The next notable head of Clan MacLean was Sir Lachlan Mo`r MacLean who died in 1598 on Islay in a battle with the MacDonalds. The feud with this clan began over control of the sea-route to Ulster that ran from Argyll, via Jura and Islay to Lough Foyle (Londenderry). MacLean even persuaded Elizabeth I to aid him in this and in 1588 a great Spanish galleon anchored in Tobermory Bay after the terrible storms that scattered the remnants of the Armada around Britain, the Spanish soldiers on board were persuaded to join an expeditionary force against the MacDonalds on Sir Lachlanâs promise that the vessel would be provisioned on their return. Unfortunately, the soldiers never did board the galleon again for it mysteriously blew up while still at anchor, with several MacLeans on board, held hostage to ensure the safe return of the soldiers fighting against the MacDonalds. The usual explanation for the explosion is that a torch was put to the shipâs magazines by either an English or MacDonald spy, but one legend has it that the ship was blown up by MacLean of Morvernâs son and heir Donald, who died in the explosion. From what we know of Sir Lachlanâs ruthless character, it might have well been a MacLean who sunk the ship because of the treasure-chests that were said to have been aboard, regardless of the poor hostages.

A fiery comet foretold Sir Lachlanâs death. He had been warned that should he ever take his galleys anti-clockwise round the small island of Eilean Armalaig in Loch Spelve, opposite the slipways used by his galleys) great misfortune would follow. MacLean ignored this warning and shortly afterward was killed on Islay by a hunchback whom he had once scorned. Perhaps this was a fitting end for a man who, on the marriage of his widowed mother, burst into the reception and murdered eighteen of the wedding guest, imprisoning the poor bridegroom and making him suffer "dailie tortour and panis".

The power and influence of the Clan MacLean was at its zenith at the time of Sir Lachlanâs death. However the Campbells were powerful in the Stuart Court and were quick to seize opportunities of humbling the MacLeans and MacDonalds, who were weakened by the years of inter-clan warfare and by the deaths of their chiefs. James VI discovered, and violently disapproved of, Sir Laclanâs dealings with Elizabeth I and this led to the sequestration of Duart in 1604 to the Kingâs Commissioners. Four years later, Lord Ochiltree was sent to Mull by the King as Viceroy in an attempt to further subdue the troublesome chiefs of the islands. He set up his headquarters at Aros Castles and invited the chiefs to a convivial evening aboard his flagship at anchor just offshore. As they waited for his lordship to propose a toast they were told that they were under arrest, and they were taken off to Edinburgh, where eventually they were forced to agree to the terms of the Statues of Iona under which they lost most of their sovereignty over the islands. However the MacLeans were allowed to retain Duart, and it seems that they may have settled for a period of domesticity in enlarging the castle and making it more comfortable place in which to live (the date 1673 can be seen over the inner doorway with the initials SAM Sir Allan MacLean).

In spite of the harsh way in which their monarch had treated them, the clan remained loyal to the Crown throughout the Cromwellian war. Sir Hector Ruadh MacLean was killed at Inverkeithing in 1651. Eight of his foster brothers are said to have been killed by Cromwellâs troops as they fought to rescue their chief, and 500 clansmen died with them. After the Civil War the family found themselves even deeper in debt and they mortgaged much of their lands in order to raise money to fight for the King, and the Campbells bought up these debts, eventually acquiring almost all of the MacLeansâ lands. For a time Duart held out against these claims; the chief being a young child, his tutor gathered a somewhat ragamuffin army at the castle to repulse the force of Argyll.

In 1674 Letters of Fire and Sword were obtained by the Earl of Argyll and a full-scale assault of Mull took place that year. The MacLeans surrendered the island after fierce fighting only to have the estates returned to them in 1681 when the Earl of Argyll fell from grace. In 1688 Argyll was back in favour with the Whigs, and Duart was besieged and bombarded from the sea by English warships. At the time Sir John MacLean of Duart was leading his clan and fighting at Kiliecrankie for the Jacobites. The Jacobitesâ defeat however, enabled the Campbells to return to Mull with a force of 2,500 men, take and lay waste the biggest thorn in their flesh, a Duart Castle. The clan held out for a short time, but was finally defeated at the battle of Cairnburg Mo`r in 1691. After this, all the MacLean estates were forfeited. The castle, though fairly ruinous condition, contained a garrison of government troops until 1751; after this it was left to become even more dilapidated.

In 1911 the ruin of Duart and a portion of the peninsula on which it stands were bought back by Colonel Sir Fitzroy MacLean, Bt., KCB, 26th Chief of Clan MacLean.