KERRERA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Ill 



the position of a town. The vitrified fort of Dun mac 

 Sniochain seems to be the only specimen of antiquity in 

 this spot; and it is not impossible that some popular 

 traditions respecting this work, may have given rise to 

 the notion of a capital city having once existed here. 

 Many parts of early Scottish history rest on fully as 

 weak a foundation, and it would be an endless task 

 to labour through all these fictions. Scotland had cer- 

 tainly no capital even down to the time of Robert the 

 First, who died in 1329. Still less could the site of 

 the capital of Scotland be in Argyll, as there never was 

 a city in this district at any period of its history. 



The antiquity of DunstafFnage castle is not less prob- 

 lematical. Pennant, who speaks of its high antiquity, 

 does not appear to have examined these subjects with 

 the requisite discrimination, or he must have perceived 

 that its date could not have been very distant. The 

 Gothic arched doorway of hewn stone at the entrance, 

 and other obvious circumstances in the structure of the 

 building, point to a comparatively recent period. It 

 is probably coeval with the castles of Duart, Dunnolly, 

 Duntulm, and others of similar architecture, which were 

 erected by the Highland chieftains after the Northmen 

 had been expelled and they had acquired a separate 

 independence. Castles of stone and lime were unknown 

 before that period. It appears however that the Nor- 

 wegians never possessed any sovereignty in this part 

 of Argyllshire ; although the Lords of Lorn were descended 

 from Somerled, who was of Norwegian lineage. Dun- 

 stafFnage was probably erected by these chiefs, namely, the 

 Macdougalls, before they were overwhelmed by the more 

 recent power of the Campbells ; although there is nothing 

 in its structure to prevent it from having been the work 

 of even the comparatively modern times of that family. 

 This probability is further indicated by the superior refine- 

 ment of its architecture to that of Dunnolly, the acknow- 

 ledged seat of the Macdougalls. The Scottish kings 



