 The castle was held by the Lord of the Isles until the late 1400s and helped to defend the border between the lands controlled by the Lord of the Isles and the lands of the King, into whose hands it then passed.King James IV of Scotland granted the castle in 1498 to the Ayrshire landholder Sir Adam Reid of Stairquhite and Barskimming, together with other property in the same area.By the middle of the 16th century the lands were part of the barony of Bar, in North Kintyre, held by the MacDonalds of Dunnyveg.