Saddell

Located eight miles north of Campbeltown, Saddell is a small hamlet of houses that also form the gateway to some of Kintyre’s most treasured architectural antiquities.

These include the ruins of a Cistercian Abbey, founded around 1160 by Somerled and completed by his son, whose descendants became the Clan MacDonald and eventual Lords of the Isles.

There are fine examples of carved medieval grave slabs on display under cover in the grounds of the Abbey.

Saddell Castle, an imposing tower house on the shoreline, was built for the Bishop of Argyll in the early sixteenth century. When the Campbells took it over in the late seventeenth century, stone from the Abbey was used to add farm buildings.

In 1976, the Landmark Trust restored the castle to its former glory and, soon afterwards, it starred alongside local bagpipers in Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre music video.

The Trust owns both Saddell Castle and nearby Saddell House and visitors can access the beach at Saddell Bay, where the famous Anthony Gormley statue is now a much-loved landmark.