Dunstaffnage Castle

Dunstaffnage was built before 1240, probably by Duncan MacDougall, Lord of Lorn and grandson of Somerled, which puts it among the oldest stone castles standing in Scotland. It occupies a platform of rock on a promontory at the entrance to Loch Etive, sea on three sides, three miles north of Oban. Robert the Bruce besieged and took it in 1308 after beating the MacDougalls at the Pass of Brander, it stayed a royal fortress until 1469, and the Campbells have held it since. There is still a hereditary Captain of Dunstaffnage, twenty-two of them and counting, and the gatehouse remains the Captain's private property, though none has lived here since a fire in 1810.

A visit starts with the curtain wall, up to three metres thick and rising 18 metres with the rock beneath it, one of the oldest standing castle walls in the country. Steps lead up through the gatehouse, rebuilt around 1500, into the courtyard, where you'll find the remains of the hall ranges, a well, and enough cellars and stairways to keep children occupied. The battlements are the highlight. You can walk a good stretch of them, with views over the Firth of Lorn, the moored yachts at Dunstaffnage Bay and across to Lismore and Mull on a clear day. Information panels around the site cover the castle's part in the wars with Norway, the Bruce campaign and daily life below stairs.

Allow time for the chapel. It stands hidden in the trees a couple of hundred metres from the walls, roofless but with some of the finest 13th-century carved stonework in Argyll, and it was here in 1463 that keeper John Stewart of Lorn was stabbed on the way to his own wedding. He survived long enough to say his vows. The castle's most famous prisoner came later: Flora MacDonald was held here for a few days in 1746, en route to the Tower of London for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie reach Skye dressed as her maid.

Give it 60 to 90 minutes, longer with the chapel and a walk down to the bay.