Dunollie Castle

There has been a fortress on the Dunollie rock for the best part of 1,300 years. The Irish annals record Dun Ollaigh attacked or burned three times between 686 and 701, when this was a royal stronghold of Dál Riata, and King Selbach rebuilt it in 714. The MacDougalls, descended from the sea lord Somerled, made it their principal seat from the 12th century, and the ivy-covered tower standing today dates mainly from the early 1400s. It guards the north entrance to Oban Bay opposite the tip of Kerrera, which tells you why everyone from Dál Riatan kings onwards wanted the spot. Clan chiefs held it through sieges in 1644 and 1647, forfeited everything after the 22nd chief, Iain Ciar, backed the Jacobites in 1715, and got the lands back around 1745. By then the castle was past living in, so the 23rd chief, Alexander MacDougall, built a house at the foot of the rock instead. The family is still there, 31 generations on from Somerled, give or take.

That house is now the heart of the visit. The 1745 House Museum, restored in 2011 to its Georgian interiors, holds the Hope MacDougall Collection, around 5,000 objects of Highland social history gathered over a lifetime by Miss Hope MacDougall, daughter, sister and aunt to three successive chiefs. Expect the old kitchen in working order, servants' quarters, clan archives and textiles, and changing exhibitions. Guided tours run at 11.30am on weekdays, and a piper plays at the castle on Sunday afternoons in season. Dunollie is where you'll hear the story of the Brooch of Lorn, the clan treasure said to have been torn from Robert the Bruce's cloak at Dalrigh in 1306.

The grounds earn their billing too. The woodland here counts as part of Argyll's rainforest, with a trail taking in the Faerie Garden, Raven Knoll and the Willow Hall, built in 2012, plus a 19th-century giant redwood and a monkey puzzle. There's a play park, the Kettle Garden Café for home baking, and a shop. The whole site runs as a social enterprise under the MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust, so the ticket money goes back into the place. Allow a couple of hours. The view from the castle over the bay to Kerrera, Lismore and Mull is the best in Oban.