Dunaverty Castle (8)
A view of the quite cramped summit of the rock, where the keep once stood, and doubtless other fortifications that preceded it had also stood.

<i>&quot;Dunaverty first comes on record at the beginning of the 8th century, when it formed a principal stronghold of the race of Gabran, grandson of Fergus of Dalriada.&quot;</i>

I can't remember where I plucked that morsel from, but if Gabrán was indeed here, it was in the 6th century, as he died c.560.  Dalriada, or  Dál Riata, was an unusual kingdom, not least because it was centred on the sea somewhere west of Scotland and north of Ulster!  Its frontier waxed and waned but at times included north-eastern Ireland (Antrim - visible in the distance in this photo), the western seaboard of Scotland, and the inner Hebridean islands as far north as Skye.  As well as the 'capital', Dunadd, near Kilmartin, Dunaverty was one of the kingdom's four principal royal sites.

Gabrán mac Domangairt, king of Dál Riata in the mid-6th century, was the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabráin, a division or 'clan' that dominated the kingship of Dál Riata until the late 7th century.
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