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Castle Stalker is a four-storey tower house or keep. The Castle's picturesque appearance, with its bewitching island setting against a dramatic backdrop of mountains, has made it a favourite subject for postcards and calendars, and something of a cliché image of Scottish Highland scenery. Castle Stalker is entirely authentic; it is one of the best-preserved medieval tower-houses surviving in western Scotland.

The original castle was a small fort, built around 1320 by Clan MacDougall who were then Lords of Lorn. Around 1388 the Stewarts took over the Lordship of Lorn, and it is believed that they built the castle in its present form around the 1440s.

Castle Stalker is in private ownership, but the official website gives details of dates and arrangements by which visits can be made by appointment, subject to advance notice, weather and tides.

The castle is set on a tidal islet on Loch Laich, an inlet off Loch Linnhe. It is located about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) north east of Port Appin, Argyll, Scotland and visible from the A828 main road about mid-way between Oban and Glen Coe. The islet is accessible (with difficulty) from the shore at low tide.

The Castle is situated on the A828 between Ballachulish and Connel, and accessed by way of a track which turns off the road (see here for map) in between the village of Portnacroish and the Castle Stalker view cafe. If travelling North from Connel, the turning is to your left after passing a row of white houses, just before the road turns up the hill to the right. If travelling South from Ballachulish, the turning is to your right approximately 200 metres after the Castle Stalker view cafe, immediately at the bottom of the hill.

Having taken this turning, continue along the track and take the first left turning, opposite a small white cottage ("Strath Cottage"). At the bottom of this track is an area where you will be able to park, and proceed through the gate on foot to the boathouse and jetty.

Google map showing

The name 'Stalker' comes from the Gaelic Stalcaire, meaning 'hunter' or 'falconer', and should therefore be pronounced 'stal-ker', with the 'l' sounded.

In recent times the castle was brought to fame by the Monty Python team, appearing in their film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The web-site tells a dramatic story of arguments, murders, hunting visits by the Stewart's relative King James IV of Scotland and a drunken bet around 1620 resulting in the castle passing to Clan Campbell. After changing hands between these clans a couple of times the Campbells finally abandoned the castle around 1840, when it lost its roof. Then in 1908 a Stewart bought the castle and carried out basic conservation work, and in 1965 Lt. Col. D. R. Stewart Allward acquired the castle and over about ten years fully restored it.

Castle Stalker – in the Gaelic, Stalcaire, meaning Hunter or Falconer – is believed originally to have been the site of a Fortalice (a small fortified building) belonging to the MacDougalls when they were Lords of Lorn, and built around 1320.

The MacDougalls lost their title after their defeat by King Bruce at Brander Pass in 1308 but regained it for a period after 1328. In about 1388 the Lordship of Lorn passed to the Stewarts, the lands including Castle Stalker.

It is believed that Castle Stalker, much in its present form, was built by the then Lord of Lorn, Sir John Stewart, who had an illegitimate son in 1446, and it believed that he built and occupied the Castle about that time.

In 1463 Sir John Stewart was keen to legitimise his son by getting married to the boy’s Mother, a MacLaren, at Dunstaffnage when he was murdered outside the church by Alan MacCoul, a renegade MacDougall, although he survived long enough to complete the marriage and legitimise his son, Dugald, who became the First Chief of Appin.

The Stewarts had their revenge on MacCoul at the Battle of Stalc in 1468 opposite the Castle when the Stewarts and MacLaren together defeated the MacDougalls, and Alan MacCoul was killed by Dugald himself. The site of this Battle is marked by a memorial stone in the Churchyard in Portnacroish.

In 1497 the Stewarts and MacLarens carried out a combined raid against MacDonald of Keppoch as a reprisal for cattle reiving, but Dugald Stewart was killed and succeeded as Chief of Appin by his son Duncan.

King James IV of Scotland, born in 1473, was a cousin of the Stewarts of Appin and when he came of age made frequent hunting journeys to the Highlands. He stayed often at Castle Stalker, using it as a base for hunting and hawking for which he had a passion.