CASTLE KEEP
A visit to Moy Castle gets Guy Grieve pondering the past
It’s a subject of eternal fascination to me, as I wander around Scotland, and especially my home island of Mull, to imagine what the lives of those who came before us in these remote rural regions were like. ‘Nasty, brutish and short,’ was Thomas Hobbes’ famous summation. I’m sure that was broadly true, but it’s the little details that catch my imagination.
Recently I visited the remote and romantic Lochbuie Estate on the southern coast of Mull. It has always been an epic spot, with Ben Buie, topped with snow in the winter months, providing a dramatic backdrop to the rugged coastal scenery. Some years ago, while taking a frosty walk along the shoreline, we were lucky enough to witness the bay filled with an immense pod of dolphins, leaping and playing in the frozen air, so close we could hear their clicks and whistles and see their misty breath.
The human constructions are equally dramatic and the place feels alive with the voices of the past, dating back well over 5,000 years in some places. At the head of the loch is Moy Castle, a tower house built in a commanding position on the rocky rise beside the swirling Moy burn. The current laird, Jim Corbett, assisted by the Mull Historical Society, Historic Scotland and the National Lottery, has undertaken a restoration programme to ensure this 13th-century castle will stand for future generations. The castle is not yet open for visitors but I asked if I could have a look around and was given a key and a torch as well as a warning, ‘just be careful’.
Moy Castle featured in the 1945 Powell and Pressburger movie I Know Where I’m Going!, and anyone who has seen the film will remember the atmospheric location. I approached the door into the tower via a series of slate steps that Historic Scotland believes were quarried from the famous deposits at Easdale Island.
Once inside, I stood in semi-darkness, trying to imagine what Hector Reaganach Maclaine, the first laird of Lochbuie, would have been like. He was the brother of Maclean of Duart but they had fallen out and Hector moved to Lochbuie in order to set up his own fiefdom, even changing the spelling of his name to signify his rejection of his relatives. He had a reputation for martial prowess and there is a wonderful story that hints at this fearsome reputation.
When Hector went to Lochbuie he found the land under the control of the far less powerful MacFadyen clan. He obtained permission to build a fort or keep at the head of the loch, which became Moy Castle. When Moy was completed, Hector took himself to the top and, armed with bow and arrow, took aim at a bone MacFadyen was contentedly gnawing at on a rock beside the shore. The arrow pierced the bone right through and legend has it that MacFadyen looked up and said, in the matterof-fact tone that I can well imagine coming from a native Muileach,’Well, it is time I was leaving,’ and promptly made tracks.
Inside the castle there is a vaulted, 100% Game of Thrones, room that contains a well filled with crystal clear water which never overflows and is well above the water table. Nobody has been able to work out where the water comes from, although it would have been vital when the keep was under siege.
From the top of the tower you can see a few boat ‘ noosts’ or nests at the foreshore where boulders were pulled away to allow birlinns to come in close to the shore. There is no knowledge of what became of Hector. The tower was taken from the Laird of Loch Buie by the Earl of Argyll in 1690 following the Jacobite rising but later restored to the Maclaines in 1697. In 1757 the tower was abandoned and Moy House was built.
As I stood at the top of the balustrade looking out over the magnificent loch in the sunshine, the questions that were coming to me were not about dates but ones that can never be answered. What were the people like who built this place? What made them laugh? What was their food like? And what did those living nearby think of the place? Was it a sanctuary or a looming beacon of fear and dominance? And more importantly, how on earth did Hector Maclaine manage to hit whatever animal bone MacFadyen was gnawing at with an arrow from this distance?
‘ What were the people like who built this place?’