Famous castles of Scotland
state care last century.The castle was built either by Alan, High Steward of Scotland
(d.1204), or by his son Walter Stewart (d.1246), ancestor of the House of Stuart or Stewart.
Alan was granted the lands of the Isle of Bute by William I in 1200. A wooden castle was
constructed first, but the stone circular curtain wall was in place by the 1230s, when the
castle was attacked and taken by Norsemen under Gillespec MacDougall (known as Uspak
in Norse), grandson of Somerled. According to The Saga of Haakon Haakonsson, the
Norsemen fought for three days to take the castle, breaking down part of the eastern wall by
hewing the stone with their axes, and certainly the eastern wall shows signs of damage. This
saga is the earliest recorded account of an assault on a Scottish castle. In 1263, Rothesay
was taken again by the Norse under Haakon IV before the Battle of Largs. Although the
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