Ardencaple Tower: detail

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 17 Nov 2014

For context, see Image, where this feature can be seen above blocked-up windows and a plaque that is shown in Image Although the castle was long associated with Clan MacAulay, the coat-of-arms shown here refers, instead, to Clan Campbell, members of which owned Ardencaple Castle for parts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the lymphads/galleys and Latin motto ("ne obliviscaris") refer to that clan. The Y-shaped elements are shakeforks. I have found no reference that explains in detail the heraldry shown here. However, two coats-of-arms are incorporated, side by side (this is called "impalement"). The (viewer's) left-hand side contains the coat-of-arms of the Dukes of Argyll; the tower was built by Lord John Campbell, who would become the 7th Duke of Argyll. I consider it likely that the right-hand side contains the arms of his third wife, Anne Cunninghame, whom he married in 1831, and who was probably his wife at the time when this tower was built; the shakefork is certainly a feature of the Cunninghame arms. As the end-note points out, the tower was built following a fire that damaged the north-western parts of the castle; that fire is said to have occurred in about 1830. Click on the end-note title for more pictures of the tower.

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