Kilchurn Castle is a ruined 14th century structure on the northeastern end of Loch Awe, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
It was the ancestral home of the Campbells of Glenorchy, who later became the Earls of Breadalbane also known as the Breadalbane family branch, of the Clan Campbell. The earliest construction on the castle was the towerhouse and Laich Hall (looks onto Loch Awe). Today, its picturesque setting and romantic state of decay make it one of the most photographed structures in Scotland.
Kilchurn Castle was built in about 1450 by Sir Colin Campbell, first Lord of Glenorchy, as a five storey tower house with a courtyard defended by an outer wall. By about 1500 an additional range and a hall had been added to the south side of the castle. Further buildings went up during the 1500s and 1600s. Kilchurn was on a small island in Loch Awe scarcely larger than the castle itself. Most sources suggest it was accessed via an underwater or low lying causeway: you only have to look at the castle today to see that when water levels were lowered by clearance of the loch's outflow in 1817, they didn't drop by far.