Today Loch Finlaggan on Islay seems a peaceful backwater. Yet in the Middle Ages it was an important power base. The two islands of Eilean Mor (or Large Isle) and Eilean na Comhairle (or Council Isle) on Loch Finlaggan were the site of a major residence of the Lords of the Isles – who governed the Hebrides and parts of mainland Scotland and Ulster.
Since the early 1990s, the Finlaggan Archaeological Project (led by Dr David Caldwell), in collaboration with the National Museum of Scotland and the Finlaggan Trust, has been seeking to understand Finlaggan’s extraordinary past – uncovering evidence of this site’s residential, administrative, and ceremonial significance.
Drawing on the findings of the Finlaggan Archaeological Project, researchers at the University of St Andrews and Smart History have created a new digital reconstruction of Finlaggan as it may have appeared in the fifteenth century – in the latter phase of its medieval glory days.
A full virtual reality version of the reconstruction can be viewed at the Finlaggan Trust Visitor Centre on Islay. To discover more about the Trust and how to visit Finlaggan please go to: finlaggan.org/
The Canmore entry for Finlaggan is here.