Finlarig Castle is an early 17th-century castle standing on a mound on a peninsula between the River Lochay and Loch Tay. Built in 1629 by 'Black' Duncan Campbell (Donnchadh Dubh) of Glenorchy, the castle is an L-plan tower-house, formerly protected by an outer enclosure or barmekin, which is now in a dangerously ruinous condition. It was one of many strongholds built in Argyll and Perthshire by the Campbells of Breadalbane. The castle was visited by Rob Roy MacGregor in 1713.
Near the Castle's north wall is a stone-lined pit which, legend has it, was used for beheading prisoners of noble blood. Commoners were hanged on a nearby oak tree. Near the Castle are the remnants of the Breadalbane Mausoleum, a mock-Tudor chapel erected in 1829 on the site of an earlier chapel and burial place founded in 1523 by an ancestor of the Earls of Breadalbane, Sir Colin Campbell. Allowed to decay over many years, this brick-built building has almost completely collapsed.
References:Sigmaringen Castle was first mentioned in the year 1077 in the chronicles of Petershausen monastery. The oldest parts of the castle are concealed beneath the alterations made during the 17th and the 19th centuries. The secret of the earliest settlement built on this defendable rock will never be fully revealed: large-scale excavation work would be necessary, which the extensive land development renders impossible. Judging from the many Roman remains unearthed in the area around Sigmaringen, the 12th century keep known as the 'Roman Tower' could be traced back to a Roman predecessor.
The castle remains that have been preserved (gate, great hall and keep) date back to the Staufer period around 1200. The castle remains were integrated into subsequent buildings. The foundations of the castle buildings are to a large extent identical to the surrounding castle wall.
These remains give us a good idea of how the castle might have looked during the 12th century.