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[Dunstaffnage Castle]

"This ancient palace is seated on a rock washed by the waves of the Atlantic. It is skirted on
the right by that beautiful arm of the sea called Loch Etive, which runs far inward. The builder
of this castle and time of its construction are unknown. It is certainly of great antiquity, and was
once the seat of the Pictish and Scottish Princes; here for a long time was preserved the famous stone,
the palladium of Scotland, brought as the legend has it, from Spain. It was afterwards removed
by Kenneth the Second to Scone, and is now in Westminster Abbey, bought thither by Edward I.
The Castle is of a square form, 87 feet within the walls, having round towers at three of the
angles. The average height of the walls is 66 feet; 9 in thickness. The external measurement of
the walls amounts to 270 feet. The circumference of the rock on which it stands is 300 feet. It
has its entrance from the sea by a staircase, but it is supposed that in former ages this was by
means of a Drawbridge. Only part of the building is habitable, the rest of it being in ruins. The
masonry is considered as very ancient. About the year 843 Kenneth McAlpine transferred the seat
of government to the Palace of Forteviot in Perthshire.
At the distance of about 400 feet from the Castle are the remains of a chapel formerly
appropriated to the religious services of its inmates. This, in length is 78 feet, in height
14, and in breadth 26."

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