The ruin of Caisteal Bhuirgh at Torlum, built for Amy MacRuairi in the 1300s and once the most important castle in Benbecula.
Borve Castle, Caisteal Bhuirgh in Gaelic, stands in ruins on a croft at Torlum on the west side of Benbecula. It was built between about 1344 and 1363 for Amy MacRuairi, first wife of John of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and was held by Clanranald until it was abandoned after the 1715 Jacobite rising. In its day it was three storeys high with walls five feet thick, and probably the most important castle in the Outer Hebrides.
It originally stood on a small islet or the shore of a tidal loch; centuries of wind-blown sand have since filled the loch and left the ruin on flat machair, with only the upper floors showing above the ground. It is on private croft land, so look from the road or ask before crossing.
Photo: Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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