📌 Killin, Stirling
★★
Three centuries ago bogs and marshland made Finlarig Castle a formidable defensive site. Today it occupies an easily accessible, wooded hillock above farmland, roughly half a mile from the western end of Loch Tay and just a few steps from the nearest road. Although partially collapsed and a little unloved, this is still an engrossing ruin worth seeking out. Many features of the L-plan tower house – built by the Black Campbells of Glenorchy in 1629 – can still be made out. To name a few: a gruesome beheading pit dug into the ground alongside the castle, the fine coat of arms (surely restored) above one of the doorways, or the sturdy vaulted cellars. Sharing the site is the Breadalbane Mausoleum, itself overlying an older burial place for the region’s earls. Heed the signs warning visitors about unsafe masonry.
🌍 Location
📌 Pier Road, 0.5 mi north of Killin village centre
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NN 575338
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 56.474879,-4.314990
🚌 Bus to Killin (0.5 mi)
🚗 Car park at Killin Cemetery, immediately to the west
📝 Key info
⌚ Always open
🎫 Free
