Tor Castle

An Iron Age fort previously occupied the site. According to tradition, the fort once belonged to Banquo, the Thane of Lochaber, who features in the play Macbeth. The Ordnance Survey Name Books of Kilmallie in 1872 makes an interesting comment of the site: <blockquote>"The old Castle of Tor-Castle is by the natives of the place Tigh Bhanco i.e. ‘Banquo’s house’. There is a walk by the Lochyside to the North of Tor Castle known as Sràid Bhanco, i.e. ‘Banquo’s Walk’; and the small green field close by the Castle is called Dail a’ Chait i.e. ‘The field of the Cats’ where Banquo is said to have gone through a mode of ‘Divination’ by means of placing a cat on an iron spit & torturing the Taing of…

The castle consists of a very ruinous tower house. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) site record of 1961 describes the site as "Tor Castle, a tower house in a rather poor condition, measuring internally 8.2 m by 4.9m, with walls standing to a maximum height of 4.0m and averaging 2.2m in thickness. It is constructed of mortared random rubble and shows some evidence of repair or rebuilding. 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. A deep ditch, now water filled, isolates the site from the remainder…