The ruined Castle Tioram (pronounced Cheerum) is sited on the rocky tidal island Eilean Tioram (the Dry Island) where the waters of Loch Moidart & the River Shiel meet. Though hidden from the sea, the castle controls access to Loch Shiel.
It commanded the water routes from loch Shiel east to Loch Sunart and northeast to Glenfinnan, Loch Eil, Loch Linnhe and the Great Glen, avoiding the dangerous waters of Ardnamurchan point.
Castle Tioram was one of Somerled‘s castles in the twelfth century. It appears to have originally been a principal stronghold of Clann Ruaidhrí. Eilean Tioram, the island the fortress sits upon, is first recorded in a charter of Cairistíona Nic Ruaidhrí, daughter of Ailéan mac Ruaidhrí. According to early modern tradition, preserved by the seventeenth-century Sleat History, the castle was erected by Ailéan’s granddaughter, Áine Nic Ruaidhrí. The castle certainly served as the seat of the latter’s Clann Raghnaill descendants for centuries.
Successive chiefs had a reputation for ruthless behaviour, one consecrating his life to plunder and rapine. Donald, the 13th chief, was notorious for cruel, savage autocratic behavior. It was already a near ruin by 1715 when it was torched by Allan MacDonald, the 14th Chief of ClanRanald when he left for the battle of Sheriffmuir, supposedly with a premonition that he would not return. He was fatally wounded there.
In the pale light of the full moon when the weather is wild, you can almost feel the spectres of its past.
