Castle Coeffin, Argyll And Bute
Photo © Colin Smith, August 1995
Castle Coeffin, Argyll And Bute Photo © Colin Smith, August 1995 |
Castle-Coeffin, an ancient fortalice in Appin, Argyllshire, on a small peninsula of Loch Linnhe, opposite Castle-Mcarnaig. Said to have been built, for purposes of defence, by a Danish prince of the name of Coellin, it seems from its architecture coeval with Castle-Shima, but now consists of nothing more than broken ivy-clad walls. |
Castle Coeffin is a ruin on the island of Lismore, an island in Loch Linnhe, in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. It stands on a promontory on the north-west coast of the island, across Loch Linnhe from Glensanda.
Coeffin Castle was built on the site of a Viking fortress. The name Coeffin is thought to come from Caifen who was a Viking prince, and whose sister supposedly haunted the castle until her remains were taken back to be buried beside her lover in Norway.
Coeffin Castle was built in the 13th century, probably by the MacDougalls of Lorn. Lismore was an important site within their lordship, being the location of St. Moluag's Cathedral, seat of the Bishop of Argyll. The first written evidence of the castle occurs in 1469–70, when it was granted to Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy by Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll. It is unlikley to have been occupied in post-mediaeval times.[1]
The ruins comprise an oblong hall-house and an irregularly shaped bailey. The hall is an irregular rectangle, measuring 20.3 by 10.4 metres (67 by 34 ft) The walls are from 2.1 to 2.4 metres (6 ft 10 in to 7 ft 10 in) thick. The bailey was mostly built at a later date than the hall. An external stair probably linked the entrance, in the north-east wall, to the bailey. A second door gave access to the sea to the south-west.
A tidal fish trap, of unknown age, is located in the small bay to the south-east of the castle. To the north-east of the castle are the remains of a stone-walled fort. The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, published in 1892, lists a Castle Rachal in the same general location as Castle Coeffin. It is described as "a very ancient Scandinavian fortalice in Lismore and Appin parish, Argyllshire, on the NW side of Lismore island, 2.5 miles from the north-eastern extremity, now a dilapidated ivy-clad ruin."[1]
CASTLE COEFFIN, LISMORE, ARGYLLSHIRE.
This shattered mass of ruins is set in a most commanding position on the summit of a conical peninsular rock on the west side of the island of Lismore, in Loch Linnhe, where it protects and conceals a small natural harbour a place no doubt of considerable importance on this rugged coast in the days of the Norsemen. The castle is said to have been erected by one of the Vikings a "Danish prince" of the same name, but it seems more likely that the present structure may have superseded an older fortress erected on this site by the Dane. The building is now a total ruin, but the outline of its walls is still traceable. They are 8 feet thick, and form a rudely rectangular structure 65 feet long by 35 feet wide, perched on the top of the rock. How the interior has been divided it is impossible to say, but there would appear to have been two windows on the landward side, and one towards the sea having small external openings with wide bays towards the interior. The doorway has been at the north end, and from the ingoing a staircase has wound up in the thickness of the wall leading to an upper floor, and no doubt to a battlemented parapet. The access to the doorway has been defended with outworks, which probably contained a staircase and draw-bridge, but they are now so destroyed as to render any explanation of them impossible. The style of the structure is rather that of the fourteenth century than of an earlier date. In point of picturesqueness these ruins are scarcely to be surpassed. [2]
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