Tor Castle

[2] The Ordnance Survey Name Books of Kilmallie in 1872 makes an interesting comment of the site: "The old Castle of Tor-Castle is by the natives of the place Tigh Bhanco i.e. ‘Banquo’s house’.

Donald B. MacCulloch (1939) writes in his book, Romantic Lochaber, that Tor Castle was built on top of an earlier site in the 11th century by Gillicattan Mor, early chief of Clan Chattan.

[6] The reason for the withdrawal was apparently a dispute with Aonghus Óg of Islay, chief of Clan Donald, who was Angus's maternal uncle.

[7] MacCulloch (1939) then writes that the lands around Tor Castle were given by John, the 1st Lord of the Isles, to Alastair Carrach (1380-1440), progenitor of the Keppoch branch of the Macdonalds, who built an early keep.

[12] By 1665, Scotland’s Privy Council ordered the chief’s of Cameron and Mackintosh to appear before them and finally resolve the dispute and make both of them bound by its decision.

The Camerons considered it something of a Pyrrhic victory, as the pursuit of their claim to Glen Loy and Arkaig over the years had cost them lands worth four times as much.

On the north side of the tower are two fragments of old walling, probably the remains of a former barmkin, and the old scrapings and platforms of the earlier Tor Castle can still be traced.

Engraving of Tor Castle, as found in Invernessiana: Contributions toward A History of the Town and Parish of Inverness, from 1160 to 1599 by Charles Fraser-Mackintosh , published in 1875