Carnasserie Castle sits on a hill a couple of kilometers north of Kilmartin Village. It was built for the 5th Earl of Argyll about 1565, by the then Bishop of the Isles, John Carswell. This Earl was one of the foremost leaders of the Protestant Reformation; and John Carswell (an excellent Gaelic scholar) is famous for translating John Knox's prayer book into Gaelic, so that it could be read by the people of the West Highlands.
Above the main door, there is an oblong panel with a carving of a shield commemorating one of the (probably) most rancorous marriages of that century: the 5th Earl of Argyll, Archibald Campbell, and Jean Stewart (a half sister of Mary Queen of Scots.) On the left, there is the Campbell galley and the 'gyronny' of eight; on the right, a lion rampant for the royal arms of Scotland. Along the bottom, in Gaelic script, there is carved, "Dia Le Ua N Dubh(n)e" (God be with the O Duibhne). The Campbells were, in Gaelic terms, the "O'Duibhne". The couple managed to divorce in 1573, the year of Archibald's death.
During the terrible wars of the 1600s, Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchenbreck garrisoned the castle as a supporter of the 9th Earl of Argyll's uprising against James II (Stewart) of England. The MacLeans of Torloisk, etc. successfully besieged the castle, blew part of it up, and murdered Auchenbreck's uncle. Good times.
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