🏰 Castle
Ardvreck Castle
📍 Sutherland
⏱ 1 hour
🆓 Free entry
🚐 Motorhome friendly
Ardvreck Castle is the most photographed castle ruin on the entire NC500 — a 15th-century MacLeod stronghold standing on a rocky peninsula jutting into Loch Assynt, with the vast bulk of Quinag mountain rising behind it and the waters of the loch reflecting the ruins on calm days. Few scenes in Scotland are more cinematically beautiful. The castle has a dramatic history: in 1650 the Marquess of Montrose, the great Royalist commander, took refuge here after his final defeat and was betrayed to the Covenanters by the MacLeod chief in exchange for food and a sum of money — a betrayal still remembered in Highland oral tradition. The adjacent roofless shell of Calda House (1726) adds to the atmosphere of the site.
On the A837 between Lochinver and the A835 junction at Ledmore. The castle layby is clearly signed at the loch shore.