Knock Old Castle was mentioned by the cartographer Timothy Pont in about 1608. The remains of this small mansion or castle stand on the edge of a stream with an extensive view to the west over Arran and Bute. It consisted of a rectangular block, with a round tower at the south-west angle, and the remains of another at the north-east angle. The latter is about 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. A courtyard wall has a door in it, and it is possible that buildings abutted this.

A modern parapet with angle turret surmounts this wall, which bears a stone inscribed "Repaired in 1853." This restoration is recorded as being by John Thomas Rochead. This wall also contains stones (not in situ) dated '1603' and '1604', the initials 'I B' being on the latter. The whole building has been restored and, in parts, modernised. The walls are only 0.6 metres (2.0 ft) thick. No other traces of courtyard wall are visible. Nigel Tranter gives a similar description in his The Fortified House in Scotland, and adds that Knock Castle was probably built in the late 16th or early 17th century. The old castle is a category B listed building.

Knock Old Castle

Account

by category

Login

Name

by region

Title

Name in English

The new castle was designed by J. T. Rochead and built in 1851-1852 in a castellated Tudor revival style. It was built for Robert Steele, a Greenock merchant, and his initials and crest are carved on the parapets. Around 1870 it was sold to George Elder FRSE (1816-1897), a Scottish businessman with strong links to Adelaide in Australia, who certainly owned the castle in the later 19th century, and died here in 1897. The house was then sold to Robert Hunter Craig who died there in 1913.

The castle was extended in 1908. It is a category A listed building.

Knock Castle

Kelburn Castle is a large house near Fairlie, North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is the seat of the Earl of Glasgow. Originally built in the thirteenth century (the original keep forms the core of the house) it was remodelled in the sixteenth century. In 1700 the first Earl made further extensions to the house in a manner not unlike a French château which is virtually how it appears today. In 1977 the house and grounds opened to the public as a country park. It is one of the oldest castles in Scotland and has been continuously inhabited by the same family for longer than any other. The castle is protected as a category A listed building, while the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.

When it was found in 2007 that the castle's concrete facing would soon need replacing, Lord Glasgow invited four Brazilian graffiti artists to decorate the walls. This was still in place in 2011, when the Earl sought permission from Historic Scotland to keep the graffiti permanently.

The Boyle family have been in possession of the lands of Kelburn since the 12th century. In the late 16th century a tower house was built. This replaced an earlier structure, and may incorporate parts of the earlier masonry its eastern part. In the 17th century, orchards and gardens are recorded at Kelburn. David Boyle (1666–1733), a member of the Parliament of Scotland, was created Earl of Glasgow in 1703. He began the new north-west wing of the house, which was completed circa 1722. George Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow (1825–1890), added the north-east wing in 1880. Following the opening of the grounds to the public, the estate buildings and stables were converted in 1980, to provide a tea room, shop and visitor information.

Graffiti project
In 2007 experts told the owners of Kelburn Castle that its concrete facing would eventually need to be replaced to avoid further damage to the stonework. At the suggestion of his children, Lord Glasgow invited four Brazilian graffiti artists (Nunca, Nina and Os Gêmeos twins) to paint the walls. Historic Scotland agreed to the project, on the basis that the graffiti would be removed when the castle was re-harled. The project was featured on the BBC television programme The Culture Show. Also in 2007, Kelburn featured in another BBC programme, Crisis at the Castle which documented the financial problems of running the castle.

In September 2010 it was reported that Historic Scotland were putting pressure on Lord Glasgow to remove the graffiti, although this was later denied by both parties. In August 2011 it was reported that the Earl had formally written to Historic Scotland asking permission to keep the graffiti as a permanent feature.

Fire damage
The castle suffered minor fire damage on 16 February 2009, as a result of an electrical fault. The fire service was called to a blaze at around 1:45 am where flames had engulfed a top-floor room and spread to the roof. Around 25 firefighters battled the blaze for more than five hours before it was extinguished at around 7:20 am.

Kelburn Castle

Castle Toward is a nineteenth-century country house on the southern tip of the Cowal peninsula, overlooking Rothesay Bay in Argyll and Bute on the west-coast of Scotland.

Built in 1820 by Glasgow merchant Kirkman Finlay, it replaced the late medieval Toward Castle, formerly the ancestral home of the Clan Lamont. It was greatly extended in the early 20th century, and in the Second World War it served as HMS Brontosaurus. After the war it was sold to Glasgow Corporation and was used as an outdoor education facility until its closure in 2009. After a failed community buyout, Toward Castle and the estate were sold by Argyll and Bute Council to private owners in 2016.

Toward Castle
The original Toward Castle dates from the 15th century and was owned by the Clan Lamont until 1809. The castle was extended in the 17th century, but was abandoned after an attack by the Clan Campbell in 1646. The ruins lie around 500 metres (1,600 ft) south-east of the later Castle Toward. Toward Castle is a scheduled monument.

Castle Toward
The present Castle Toward was built in 1820 for Kirkman Finlay (1773–1842), former Lord Provost of Glasgow, as his family's country house. Finlay purchased the Achavoulin estate and renamed it Toward in 1818. It is built in the castellated Gothic Revival style, and was designed by David Hamilton. Edward La Trobe Bateman was involved in garden design work here in the 1880s.

It was from Castle Toward that the second son of Alexander Struthers Finlay - Alexander Kirkman Finlay - emigrated to the then colony of Victoria, Australia, and subsequently married the daughter of the then Governor of New South Wales, Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead. The wedding of Nora Robinson and Alexander Kirkman Finlay at St James' Church, Sydney, in 1878 attracted enormous attention in the colony and was extensively reported in the press.

Later owned and extended by Major Andrew Coats, of the Coats family of Paisley, Italian plasterwork was installed in the public rooms in 1920. The entire building was restored and enlarged over the course of the 1920s by the architect Francis William Deas, who also laid out most of the current landscaping. The grounds incorporate the ruins of the original Toward Castle, the Chinese ponds, wooded areas, access to the shore, and views over the Firth of Clyde.

HMS Brontosaurus
During the Second World War the castle was requisitioned as a combined operations centre (COC No. 2), and was commissioned as HMS Brontosaurus in 1942. It was a training centre for the amphibious landings which were launched on D-Day as well as other raids. Officers and men were trained in use of various landing craft on nearby beaches. Brontosaurus was visited by both Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten during this time. It closed in 1946.

Outdoor education centre
The castle, and 226 acres (0.91 km2) of woodland, were purchased by the Corporation of Glasgow in 1948. The building was used initially as a residential school for children recovering from illness or living in deprived home conditions. It then became available for residential education for children from all Glasgow Primary Schools and operated for 50 years as an outdoor education centre for children from Glasgow and Renfrewshire. With the reorganisation of local government in Scotland in 1996, ownership passed to Argyll and Bute Council and such centres were threatened with closure. Peter Wilson, at the time the principal of the centre, formed a company called Actual Reality to operate the centre, as well as a second council-owned centre at Ardentinny. Activities operated by Actual Reality included high ropes, kayaking, and orienteering, as well as gorge walks and hill walks. The grounds of the centre were used as a filming location for the children's BBC Television series Raven, featuring the actor James Mackenzie, up to and including the seventh series at the start of 2008. The house was also used for residential courses for young people in music and art. The Glasgow Schools' Symphony Orchestra and West of Scotland Schools' Concert Band visited regularly. The house has been a category B listed building since 1971, and the grounds were added to the national Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland in 2007.

Sale
On 13 November 2009 Argyll and Bute Council temporarily closed the castle on the recommendation of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, on the grounds that it was unfit for purpose. There followed several attempts by the council to sell the estate, though all met with local opposition. The castle's former composer-in-residence, John Maxwell Geddes, wrote a Postlude for Strings in protest at plans to sell the castle. The Council placed the building on the market in 2010, and in response the South Cowal Community Development Company (SCCDC) was formed to explore community ownership of the castle, though their initial bid was rejected by the Scottish Ministers in 2011. An agreement was reached with a holiday company, which then pulled out of the sale in 2013 forcing the Council to market the property once more. SCCDC launched a second community ownership bid which was accepted by Scottish Ministers in November 2013. However, in December 2014 the Council rejected SCCDC's offer, claiming that at £865,000 it was below market value, and instead offered to support SCCDC with a loan. SCCDC dismissed the Council's proposal in January 2015, stating that securing the community purchase before a 31 January deadline now had "very little chance of succeeding". By 26 January, 5,600 people had signed an online petition calling on the Council to reconsider their decision. The council sold the castle in June 2016, for £1.51 million, to Denice Purdie and Keith Punler of Kapital Assets, who planned to develop houses, flats, a wedding venue and other businesses on the estate.


Castle Toward

Rothesay Castle is a ruined castle in Rothesay, the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in western Scotland. The castle has been described as "one of the most remarkable in Scotland", for its long history dating back to the beginning of the 13th century, and its unusual circular plan.

The castle comprises a huge curtain wall, strengthened by four round towers, together with a 16th-century forework, the whole surrounded by a broad moat. Built by the Stewart family, it survived Norse attacks to become a royal residence. Though falling into ruin after the 17th century, the castle was repaired by the Marquess of Bute before passing into state care in the 20th century.

The early castle
The castle was built either by Alan fitz Walter, Steward of Scotland (died 1204), or by his succeeding son Walter (died 1246). During Alan's tenure, the family added the Isle of Bute to their lordship. A wooden castle was constructed first, but the stone circular curtain wall was in place by the 1230s, when the castle was attacked and taken by the Norwegian-backed fleet of Óspakr-Hákon, King of the Isles (died 1230). According to Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, Óspakr's forces fought for three days to take the castle, breaking down part of the eastern wall by hewing the stone with their axes. This saga is the earliest recorded account of an assault on a Scottish castle. In 1263, Rothesay was taken again by the Norwegian forces under Hákon Hákonarson, King of Norway (died 1263) before the Battle of Largs. Although the Battle of Largs was indecisive, Hákon's campaign was unsuccessful, and effectively ended Norwegian authority in western Scotland.

The early castle comprised only the roughly circular curtain wall, 2.7 m (9 ft) thick, 7.9 m (26 ft) high and around 42 m (138 ft) in diameter, built on a low mound, with a battlement on top accessed by open stairs. The moat was connected to the sea, the shoreline then being closer to the north-east of the Castle than it is today. The broad crenellations can be made out within the walls, which were later raised. Holes in the upper wall would have supported a timber bretasche, a projecting structure serving as an extended battlement. This curtain wall was built of coursed ashlar, and had only two openings in its length. The main gate was an arched opening with a simple timber door. The second opening was a small postern gate in the west wall, later blocked.

In the later part of the 13th century, the castle was strengthened by the addition of four round towers, of which only the north-west survives intact. These three-storey towers had strong splayed bases, with arrow slits below the crenellated parapet. A portcullis was added to the main gate.

Wars of independence and the rise of the Stewarts
During the Wars of Scottish Independence, Rothesay was held by the English, but was taken by Robert the Bruce in 1311. It then returned to English hands in 1334, before being taken again by the Scots. Following the accession of the Stewarts to the throne of Scotland in 1371, the castle became a favourite residence of kings Robert II and Robert III, who died here in 1406. Robert II granted the hereditary keepership of the castle to his son John, ancestor of the Earls and Marquesses of Bute. Robert III made his eldest son David Duke of Rothesay in 1401, beginning a tradition of honouring the heir to the throne of Scotland with this title. In 1462 the castle survived a siege by the forces of John of Islay, Earl of Ross and the last Lord of the Isles.

16th and 17th centuries
In the early 16th century Rothesay Castle was strengthened again. Construction of a gatehouse keep, extending from the north of the curtain wall, began around the turn of the century, to provide more modern accommodation for James IV. The curtain wall itself was raised up to ten metres in height, the works continuing into the reign of James V. In 1527 the castle withstood another siege by the Master of Ruthven, which destroyed much of the burgh of Rothesay. In 1544, the castle fell to the Earl of Lennox, acting for the English during the so-called "Rough Wooing".

The forework is an L-plan structure, which jutted into the moat and was accessed by a drawbridge. The lower floor comprised a vaulted entrance tunnel running into the older castle courtyard. Above, the four-storey tower contained royal lodgings, and still bears the royal coat of arms above the door. Also in the early 16th century, a chapel was constructed inside the old castle. Simple in form, the chapel measured around 7 m (23 ft) by 14 m (45 ft), and is now the only surviving structure within the curtain wall. The north-west tower was converted into a doocot, and is known as the "Pigeon Tower", due to the nest boxes built into the outside wall.

Rothesay was garrisoned for the occupying forces of Oliver Cromwell, who invaded Scotland with his New Model Army in the early 1650s. On their departure in 1660, the troops partially dismantled the structure. What was left was burned by the supporters of Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll during his rising of 1685, in support of the Monmouth Rebellion against James VII.

Repair and restoration
Following a long period of neglect, the 2nd Marquess of Bute employed 70 men to excavate the ruins, clearing large amounts of rubbish from the castle in 1816-17. But it was not until the 1870s that the ruins were stabilised. The 3rd Marquess, a keen restorer of historic buildings, embarked upon a series of repairs and restorations, following surveys and advice from his regular architect William Burges. His "restorations" continued until 1900, and include the clearing and shaping of the moat, as well as the red sandstone additions to the forework, which reinstated the hall roof while significantly altering the character of the building.

In 1961 Rothesay Castle was given to the state, and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, in the care of Historic Scotland.

The castle is open to visitors year round. Fine views can be seen from the top of the walls over the town and back towards the mainland.

Rothesay Castle

Kames Castle is located on the shore of Kames Bay near Port Bannatyne, on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. It consists of a 16th-century tower house, extended by the addition of a range of cottages. The castle is set in 20 acres (81,000 m2) of planted grounds, including a 2-acre (8,100 m2) 18th-century walled garden.

History
The lands of Kames were granted to the Bannatyne family by Robert the Bruce in the 14th century. Although of 14th-century appearance, the present tower house is thought to date from the 16th century. The last Bannatyne owner was Sir William Macleod Bannatyne (1743–1833), a distinguished lawyer and judge in Edinburgh, who took the title Lord Bannatyne on promotion to the College of Justice in 1799. In the later 18th and early 19th century he laid out the walled garden and constructed a mansion adjoining the tower house.

Kames was the birthplace and early home of the critic and essayist John Sterling (1806–1844). Thomas Carlyle in his biography of Sterling refers to the castle as "a kind of dilapidated baronial residence to which a small farm was then attached". Lord Bannatyne sold the estate around 1810, to James Hamilton WS, preferring his social life in Edinburgh. Kames Castle became part of the Marquess of Bute's estate in 1863. Some alterations to the tower house were undertaken in the later 19th century. Around 1900 the mansion was demolished and replaced with a series of cottages around a courtyard, with the intention of creating a hunting lodge.

In the mid to late 20th century, Kames was used as a children's home. It is now privately owned, with a number of cottages available as holiday lets. The castle, cottages, walled garden and other estate buildings are category B listed buildings.

Kames Castle

Portencross Castle, also known historically as Portincross Castle, is situated in Portencross, on the west coast of Scotland, about 3km from West Kilbride. The site has been fortified since the 13th Century. Check its website for current opening times as these vary. The present building is thought to date from the 14th Century and later.

The castle was one of the buildings featured in the 2004 series of the BBC television programme Restoration and is the subject of efforts by a local community group to secure its future.

In the castle's earliest days, it was known as "Arneil" (alternatively spelled "Arnele" or "Ardneil"), and it stood atop Auld Hill. Portencross is believed by some to have been a royal residence, as it is known that several charters of the first two Stuart kings were signed at the castle.

The castle was rebuilt in the 14th century, not on Auld Hill, but instead on a rock promontory at the bottom of the hill, overlooking the Firth of Clyde. From this location, Robert II signed several more Royal Charters, and the castle remained occupied until the roof was blown off during a violent storm in 1739. The castle walls still remain in place today, and the building has recently been opened to the public, with visitors able to access a ground floor room, the main hall, and the roof.

The castle is a designated scheduled ancient monument.

Portencross Castle

Barr Castle is a late medieval tower house. It can be seen today as a ruin on a low ridge to the south of the village of Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland.

Barr Castle was constructed in the 15th or early 16th century. It passed into the hands of the Hamiltons of Ferguslie at the end of the 16th century. They retained the castle until the late 18th century, when they sold and abandoned it for a new mansion. The castle is protected as a scheduled monument.

Architecture
The tower is a simple rectangle on plan, measuring about 7.80m east to west by 10.70m transversely, which stands to the level of the corbelling of the four angle turrets, now gone, about 12.0m high; on its south side, the chimney stack and part of the gable remain.

Externally the castle is very plain, and it depends for its appearance on its mass. The tower has walls of roughly-coursed, square-faced masonry with dressed stone corner-quoins. The only remaining ornamental feature is the pediment above the main entrance, inscribed with the initials of Margaret Hamilton and John Wallace.

The main entrance to the castle is at ground level on the west side. This is a later alteration; the original doorway was on the first floor, reached by a stairway. Window openings survive on all four sides of the building. Also visible on the tower walls are several elements which indicate later alterations, probably in the late 17th century, when the tower was converted into a larger residence.

Little now survives of the courtyard as drawn by McGibbon & Ross in the 19th century. Extant photographs and plans indicate that the courtyard supported various subsidiary buildings, including a wing attached to the southern wall of the tower, now gone.

The ground floor was divided into two apartments, both of which had low vaulted ceilings. The entrance doorway opened into a small passage, from which the two apartments could be formally accessed and where the circular stair to the upper floor started. The kitchen possessed a large and very low arched fireplace.

The hall occupied the whole of the first floor, with light entering from the four sides. The hall differed from the great majority in Scottish castles, the ceiling having been flat and low instead of the usual loftily arched form. It is evident from the existing plans of the second floor that it had been divided into two apartments by a light partition starting from between the doors of the two garderobes in the south wall. The two staircases would have given separate access from the hall below to each of these two rooms. The third floor had, like the second floor, been divided into two apartments, with a garderobe for each and separate access from the hall as on the floor below. Closets are formed in the thickness of the walls.

The plan of the battlements shows the common arrangement for the protection of the walls before lead came into use. The stones overlap at the joints, and gargoyles are formed on the lower ones. Formally stairs at the north-west angle led to the battlements as well as the main stair. There was a complete passageway round the top of the building. The corner turrets had been roofed, and checks previously existed for small doors at each, and iron crooks for the hinges. A large gutter, made of stone hollowed on the surface, formed the junction between each turret and the main roof.

Various inscriptions are carved into the fabric of Barr Castle. These include IW and MH on the pediment above the main entrance, IH and IC 1680 above the lintel at the head of the stair, and WO 1699 on the battlements. The carvings are the initials of various Hamilton Lairds of Barr, John Wallace and his wife Margaret Hamilton, John Hamilton and Jean Cochrane.


Barr Castle

Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks. For centuries this location was used to offload seagoing ships, and led to the growth of Port Glasgow close to the castle on either side and to the south. When dredging techniques made the Clyde navigable as far as Glasgow the port became a shipbuilding centre, and the castle was surrounded by shipyards. Ferguson Shipbuilders, the last shipyard on the lower Clyde, stands close to the west of the castle, but the shipyards to the east were removed around the 1980s and new landscaped areas formed to the east of Newark Castle, opening up scenic views of the castle and across the Clyde from a new bypass road.

The castle was built in 1478 by George Maxwell when he inherited the Barony of Finlanstone (Finlaystone) in the parish of Kilmacolm. The original castle had a tower house within a walled enclosure or barmkin entered through a large gatehouse. All that remains of the outer defensive wall is from one of the original corner towers. It is thought that there would have been a hall and ancillary buildings such as a bakehouse and brew house inside the walled enclosure.

Renaissance mansion
In the late 16th century the castle was inherited by Sir Patrick Maxwell, a powerful friend of king James VI of Scotland and who was notorious for murdering two members of a rival family and beating his wife who left him after having 16 children. In 1597 Sir Patrick expanded the building, constructing a new north range replacing the earlier hall in the form of a three storey Renaissance mansion. At this time the barmkin wall was demolished except for the north east tower, which was converted into a doocot.

The central part of the mansion has cellars with tiny windows under a main hall with large windows, and other accommodation above that. An east wing with the main entrance door close to the main block links it to the original tower house which was suitably modified, and a short west wing connects to the gatehouse. The mansion has features of the Scottish baronial style including crow-stepped gables and north corners embellished with corbelled turrets. At the centre of its north wall a stairwell supported out on corbelling gives access to the upper floor.

In 1668 the Glasgow authorities purchased 18 acres (7 hectares) of land around Newark Castle from Sir George Maxwell who was then the laird, and developed the harbour into what they called "Port Glasgow". The last Maxwell died in 1694 and the castle had a series of non-resident owners. An early tenant was a ropemaker called John Orr who also dealt in wild animals such as big cats and bears which he obtained from ships visiting the Clyde and often housed in the castle cellars. The cellars and gardens were later rented by Charles Williamson who blocked access from the hall to stop the joiner John Gardner who rented the hall from stealing fruit stored in the cellars.

John Smith in 1895 records that the stump of the dule tree were carefully preserved in the castle grounds.

Visitor access
Newark Castle came into state care in 1909 and is now a property of Historic Scotland with excellent visitor facilities.

Newark Castle

The original Finlaystone House was built in the 14th century and incorporates a 15th century castle.

The original house was extended and remodeled in 1760 and again between 1899 and 1903. The castle was originally the property of the Cunningham Earls of Glencairn and the 5th Earl invited John Knox to preach there in 1556. There is still an ancient yew tree under which Knox is said to have preached – though a later owner had the tree moved away from the house as it was blocking the light to the windows! Robert Burns, who was a friend of one of the Earls of Glencairn also visited the house.

Finlaystone is now a centre for the MacMillans and the clan is featured in a number of areas and have held gatherings there in recent years.

Finlaystone Castle

Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Scotland. It overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton, and sits on a plug of volcanic basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is 240 feet (73 m) high. According to the local museum, Dumbarton Rock is a volcanic plug of basalt created 334 million years ago, with the softer exterior of the volcano having weathered away.

Iron Age
At least as far back as the Iron Age, this has been the site of a strategically important settlement as evidenced by archaeological finds.

The people that came to reside there in the era of Roman Britain were known to have traded with the Romans - though these may or may not have been the Picts that dwelled in Dumbarton in the Bronze Age & early-mid Iron Age. However the first written record about a settlement there was marked in a letter Saint Patrick wrote to King Ceretic of Alt Clut in the late 5th century.

Early Medieval Era
David Nash Ford has proposed that Dumbarton was the Cair Brithon ("Fort of the Britons") listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Sub-Roman Britain. From the fifth century until the ninth, the castle was the centre of the independent Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde. Alt Clut or Alcluith, the Brythonic name for Dumbarton Rock, became a metonym for kingdom. The king of Dumbarton in about AD 570 was Riderch Hael, who features in Welsh and Latin works.

During his reign Merlin was said to have stayed at Alt Clut. The medieval Scalacronica of Sir Thomas Grey records the legend that "Arthur left Hoël of Brittany his nephew sick at Alcluit in Scotland." Hoël made a full recovery, but was besieged in the castle by the Scots and Picts. The story first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Amongst lists of three things, in the triads of the Red Book of Hergest, the third "Unrestrained Ravaging" was Aeddan Fradog (the Wily, perhaps Áedán mac Gabráin), coming to the court of Rhydderch the Generous at Alclud, who left neither food nor drink nor beast alive. This battle also appears in stories of Myrddin Wyllt, the Merlin of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini, perhaps conflated with the battle of Arfderydd, located as Arthuret by some authors.

In 756, the first (and second) losses of Dumbarton Rock were recorded. A joint force of Picts and Northumbrians captured the fortress after a siege, only to lose it again a few days later. By 870, it was home to a tightly packed British settlement, which served as a fortress and as the capital of Alt Clut. In 871, the Irish-based Viking kings Amlaíb and Ímar laid siege to Dumbarton Rock. The fortress fell in four months, after its water supply failed. The kings are recorded to have returned to Ireland with 200 ships and a host of British, English, and Pictish captives. These prisoners may have included the ruling family of Alt Clut including the king Arthgal ap Dyfnwal, who was slain the following year under uncertain circumstances. Following the Viking destruction of the fortress, Dumbarton Rock does not appear on record again until the 13th century, and the capital of the restructured Kingdom of Strathclyde appears to have relocated up the Clyde to the vicinity of Partick and Govan.

Medieval Era
In medieval Scotland, Dumbarton (Dùn Breatainn, which means "the fortress of the Britons") was an important royal castle. It sheltered David II and his young wife, Joan of The Tower after the Scottish defeat at Halidon Hill in 1333.

In 1425 the castle was attacked by James the Fat, youngest son of Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, who had been imprisoned by King James I of Scotland on charges of treason. James the Fat became a rallying point for enemies of the King, and raised a rebellion against the crown. He marched on the town of Dumbarton and burned it, but was unable to take the castle, whose defender John Colquhoun successfully held out against James' men.

James IV and Dumbarton
The former supporters of James III under the leadership of John Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox met up at Dumbarton Castle in October 1489. They had hoped to gain the support of Henry VII of England. James IV defeated them in a battle between the Touch and Menteith hills near Stirling on 11 and 12 October. James IV used Dumbarton as the west coast base for his navy and campaigns to subdue the Western Isles. James was at Dumbarton with the Chancellor of Scotland, Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll, in November 1489. He had the use of a ship belonging to the Laird of Luss. In the following February a royal ship was 'chaysit' by the English and lost some of her cables. In 1494 a row barge was built at Dumbarton for the king using timber from Loch Lomond.

In March 1495 James IV was provided with a camp bed for use at sea and a boat carried cannon to Dumbarton. Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell, was made Captain of the castle on 1 April 1495. A man played on the clarschaw, a Gaelic harp, for the King. In 1505 Dumbarton was the King's base for visiting the Western Isles. One ship's mast was made from timber from Drymen. On 5 June James was entertained by a French 'quhissilar', perhaps playing a recorder and on 8 June James played cards with John Murray and Master Robert Cockburn losing £4-10 shillings, and later that day attended Evensong in the Parish kirk and College of Dumbarton. In 1505 John Ramsay built a ship for the King called the Columb, ( Saint Columba being the father of Christianity in Scotland ). In December 1505 a sword that had belonged to William Wallace was repaired.

Regent Albany, James V and the circumnavigation of Scotland
On 18 May 1515 the James or the Margaret with six other ships brought John Stewart, Regent Albany to Dumbarton. These royal ships were repaired at Dumbarton in July and new docks were made for them. John Drummond of Milnab brought fourteen of their guns to Glasgow. In September Regent Albany held court at Dumbarton, and received Thomas Benolt, the English Clarenceux King of Arms. The Carrick Herald and Clarenceux were sent to Lord Maxwell. In March 1516 Albany issued six letters of remission (forgiveness) to those who had held the castle for Lennox against the king in 1489. Regent Albany returned to France from Dumbarton in 1524.

In 1526 John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Lennox fortified Dumbarton against the Douglas faction who had control of the young James V, but his forces were defeated by Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus at the battle of Linlithgow Bridge. James Hamilton of Finnart, who was implicated in the death of the Earl of Lennox, was given custody of the castle till 1531. Later in his personal reign James V used the castle as a prison for those convicted at the justice ayre, receiving their fines and composition payments in 1539. In 1540 James circumnavigated Scotland from the Forth and arrived at Dumbarton with Cardinal Beaton, the Earl of Huntly, and the Earl of Arran each leading a force of five hundred men. This expedition was later published by Nicolas de Nicolay Seigneur d'Arfeville, cosmographer to the King of France in 1583, with the first modern map of Scotland's coastline.

Lennox and Mary, Queen of Scots
Matthew, Earl of Lennox had been an ally of the French party in Scotland led by Mary of Guise but committed himself to the pro-English faction. In 1544 munitions and ten thousand French crowns of the sun arrived with Jacques de la Brosse at Dumbarton's harbour and were secured by Lennox and the Earl of Glencairn. Lennox then went into England, leaving the castle in the keeping of William Stirling of Glorat. Lennox signed a deal with Henry VIII of England offering Dumbarton Castle and the Isle of Bute in return for land in England and marriage to Henry's niece Margaret Douglas, and the future Governorship of Scotland if circumstances permitted. Lennox undertook to prevent the infant queen Mary being taken from Scotland. However, George Stirling of Glorat, unhappy at this policy, prevented Lennox returning into the castle and he was forced to sail to Ireland. George Stirling declared that he would hold the castle in the name of the young queen only. The Privy Council of Scotland agreed to George Stirling's plan. Despite this, more French troops landed at Dumbarton under the leadership of Lorges Montgomery, the soldier who later killed Henry II of France at a joust in 1559.

In May 1545 Lennox tried to take the castle, with soldiers commanded by his brother, Robert Stewart, Bishop of Caithness. He had sailed from Chester with around 20 followers in May 1546 in the Katherine Goodman and a pinnace. Regent Arran besieged the castle with a superior force, having borrowed the artillery of the Earl of Argyle. George Stirling of Glorat surrendered after 20 days and made terms. The chronicle historian John Lesley wrote that the Captain and the Bishop surrendered the castle to Arran and were rewarded, after negotiation by the Earl of Huntly. The siege at Dumbarton delayed Arran's action at the siege of St Andrews Castle on the East coast of Scotland. Thereafter the castle was in the hands of Regent Arran and he held court in person there in July giving legal remission to the keeper of the Castle and in March 1547 acknowledging the good service of George Stirling of Glorat in rendering the castle to him.

As the war of the Rough Wooing continued, by 22 February 1548 Mary, Queen of Scots was in the castle. Alexander Cunningham, 5th Earl of Glencairn wrote to Mary of Guise from Dumbarton that he had received a French cargo, and it would be as safe as if it were in Stirling Castle. Mary of Guise was at the castle in the first days of May 1548 and Mary, Queen of Scots was kept at the castle for several months before her embarkation for France for safety on 13 July 1548. The sailing however was delayed by adverse winds till 7 August 1548. Her party including the Four Marys left the Clyde in a fleet under the command of Nicolas de Villegagnon. They sailed around the west coast of Ireland, to avoid English ships commanded by Edward Clinton.

In France she was soon betrothed to the young dauphin Francis. Seven years after the end of the war of the Rough Wooing, in 1557, five hundred Gascon soldiers arrived at Dumbarton destined to serve on the borders against the English for Mary of Guise according to a rumour heard by Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis.

Marian Civil War, Regent Morton, and the Duke of Lennox
After the defeat at the battle of Langside John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming, keeper of the Castle went with Queen Mary into England but was allowed to return. When William Kirkcaldy of Grange governor of Edinburgh Castle changed to support Mary, this became a problem for Regent Moray. The first siege was lifted because of the assassination of Regent Moray. The assassin James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was welcomed at the castle. Fleming's defence of Dumbarton for Mary was satirized in a ballad printed by Robert Lekprevik in May 1570; The tressoun of Dumbertane. Attributed to Robert Sempill, the ballad describes Fleming's failed ambush of Sir William Drury in May 1570. In October 1570 during the Marian civil war the castle was fortified the castle for Mary against the supporters of James VI of Scotland with stones obtained by demolishing churches and houses in Dumbarton and Cardross. The castle was captured by the forces of [Regent Lennox led by Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill and John Cunningham of Drumquhassle in the early hours of 2 April 1571, who used ladders to scale the rock and surprise the garrison.

Dumbarton Castle was used as prison for Regent Morton in June 1581 before his execution in Edinburgh. On 8 September 1582 the castle was put unto the keeping of Walter Stewart of Taberstoun an ally of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, the King's favourite. The Duke of Lennox was displaced by the Gowrie Regime and went to the castle in secret pretending to be travelling from Edinburgh to nearby Dalkeith Palace. Lennox had his own ship there described as a barque. Robert Bowes, the English resident agent, expected the Duke of Lennox would sail to France from Dumbarton "having well victualled his shippe there." Other observers were anxious that the castle might become a foothold for French forces in Scotland allied to Lennox and his faction. In December 1582 two Englishmen in Lennox's service at Dumbarton left by his ship from Largs. Lennox himself travelled to France through England, never to return.

Seventeenth century
Although few buildings remain from this period there are records of works in 1617, 1618, and 1628-9. A replacement Wallace Tower was built superseding the medieval building. In June 1618 masons were working on the upper storey and it was decided to make the tower larger. Externally it was finished with lime plaster called harling. At the south side there was a bell house. By 1627 it was discovered that the keeper Sir John Stewart of Methven had neglected the fortress. He was replaced by Sir John Stewart of Traquair who recorded the poor state of the building. Surviving accounts mostly record work on the artillery and the 'foir yet wall' a defence on the southern side. The Scottish Parliament in 1644 judged that the castle was likely to more hurtful than useful to the country.

In November 1645 the Committee of Estates approved the recruitment of thirty extra soldiers by the keeper John Semple to guard the increased number of prisoners. The castle's strategic importance declined after Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658. However, due to threats posed by Jacobites and the French in the eighteenth century, new structures and defences were built and the castle was garrisoned until World War II. Some documentation for these later works is preserved in the National Archives of Scotland.

Inventories
Several lists of the castle's contents survive, including inventories from 1510, 1571, 1580, 1644, and 1668. These list guns and furniture and name many locations in the castle. There is also a list of cannon transported by John Drummond of Milnab to Dumbarton in 1536. In 1510 St Patricks chapel contained an old parchment mass book, a pewter chalice, and liturgical cloths. The hall had four tables and next to that was a chalmer of Dess, a 'solar' in English terms with a bed. The Wallace tower was protected with an iron yett and draw bar, there were bedchambers within and a bell at the head of the tower; the 'Wynde Hall' contained another bed.

In August 1536 George Stirling of Glorat took delivery from John Drummond the king's Master Wright of four great guns and six falcons on carriages with wheels, thirty three bronze hagbut hand-guns and four iron culverins, with ammunition and powder and ramrods for the big guns. John Drummond took away an old brass gun that was ten feet long.

In 1571 amonngst the cannon and guns there was a "gross culverin", two small "batteris", and a French "moyen" mounted for use on the walls. Another moyen was suitable for action in the field. There were two Brittany-made falcons on the walls, a quarter falcon and a "double barse". Provisions included eleven hogshead of biscuit. Some of the guns were subsequently taken to besiege Edinburgh Castle during the Marian civil war.

The document compiled in 1580 was "the inventar of the munitioun and uther insicht geir underwrittin left in the castell of Dumbertane be Johnne Conninghame of Drumquhassill and deliverit be the said Johnne to William Stewart of Cabirston in name and behalf of ane noble and potent lord Esme erll of Lennox lord Darnley and Obeigny on the 27 August 1580". There were six large cannon. The bed in the chamber of dais was now described as 'ane stand bed of eistland tymmar with ruf and pannell of the same', a bed made from imported Baltic oak.

By 1644, when John Sempill was made keeper the 'Chamber of deisse' still contained a bed with a chamber pot and truckle bed for a servant, but it also contained armaments. There were twelve ram-rods, and three worms' - screws for unloading guns, three hagbuts and an iron flail. The hall contained twelve broken pikes, four without their iron blades. The contents of the armoury included thirty-three corslets, 105 helmets, and 43 swords.

In 1668 the Governor Francis Montgomerie of Giffin recorded that the first floor of a lodging called the 'new chamber' contained 'a quantity of old rusty guns and sword, so rusted broke and spoiled that they can never serve for any use, above the beds were 'insufficient' and in the top room there was spoiled matches. The windows of this new lodging were broken. Montgomerie was worried about the water-supply from the loch and the 'laigh' low well.