Eilean Tioram (The Dry Island) and Castle Tioram

Sea, lochs and rivers were the highways of the Western Highlands from ancient times until the relatively recent past. A glance at the map shows the strategic importance of the site in the Shiel estuary. It would have commanded and controlled the water and portage routes from loch Shiel east to Loch Sunart avoiding the dangerous waters off Ardnamurchan point and northeast to Glenfinnan and thence to Loch Eil, Loch Linnhe and the Great Glen. The vitrified fort on the Torr at Shielfoot would have overlooked the lower reaches of the river Shiel in the Iron Age. It is likely that the dry island, flanked by beaches ideal for pulling up highland galleys or birlinns or hide boats and with a sheltered deep anchorage on the northeast side, would have been used long before the castle was built. The discovery of a 7th century bronze hanging-bowl in a castle midden in 1928 1 (now displayed in the west Highland Museum in Fort William) indicates that the site had probably been of importance before it was chosen as a mediev