EXCURSION XIV. 175 



sea in a cliff fourteen or fifteen feet high. Its foundations are 

 laid on a rock of columnar clinkstone with much iron, like 

 that of Holy Isle, and which changes inland to what is con- 

 veniently but incorrectly called a trap porphyry, a gray or 

 blue compound base with earthy felspar imbedded. 



81. Kildouan Castle is a square keep, without ornament, 

 four storeys in height, with several vaulted apartments. The 

 date of its erection is uncertain ; but it was probably put up 

 at the time of the war with the Edwards, as one of a line of 

 watchtowers reaching from Ailsa Craig to Dumbarton Rock. 

 Like that of Looh Ranza, it was a royal castle till 1405, 

 when the lands and castle were granted to Stewart of 

 Ardgowan, in whose family they remained for 150 years. 

 To attach a turbulent chief of Cantire and the Isles 

 Macdonald of Dunivaig the Eai'l of Arran, then Regent, 

 forced a sale upon the Stewarts; but a few years afterwards 

 he bestowed on Macdonald, in exchange, valuable lands at 

 Saddell in Cantire, and became himself owner of Kildonan. 

 The Stewarts, of two families, seem next to have got the 

 property; first, one under Cromwell, the Hamilton estates 

 having been forfeited ; and again, another by succession. 

 They went afterwards to the Earls of Bute, from whom they 

 were purchased, about thirty years ago, by the Hamilton 

 family. The late Duke, when Marquis of Douglas, erected 

 the handsome shooting-lodge which now stands on the sum- 

 mit of the Dippen cliffs, with a magnificent look-out over 

 rock and flood. Kildonan Inn is by the shore, under the 

 platform, where we may rest for a little and partake of its 

 hospitality. 



82. The claystone "platform on which Kildonan Castle 

 stands extends inland as a bed in the sandstone, which also 

 shews below it on the shore, and forms the basement of the 

 terraces and ridges of trap which sweep round westwards by 

 Benan and Lag. This trap is mixed up with claystones, and 

 dark-based felspar and pearl-stone porphyries, in such a way 

 that it is impossible to unravel the order among these pro- 



