---
title: "Ardincaple Castle, Helensburgh, Argyll · Rampant Scotland"
description: "The remains of Ardincaple Castle, in the coastal town of Helensburgh, stand on a prominent site overlooking the Firth of Clyde. Built on land which was owned by"
canonical: "https://rampant-scotland.pages.dev/castles/blcastles_ardincaple.htm"
last-updated: "2026-11-11"
date-basis: "git-content-change"
---

# Ardincaple Castle, Helensburgh, Argyll · Rampant Scotland

Castles

# Ardincaple Castle, Helensburgh, Argyll

[Original page](https://web.archive.org/web/20220817231710/http://www.rampantscotland.com/castles/blcastles_ardincaple.htm)

Restored from the raw archived page capture: original scripts, advertisements and shared site navigation removed. Original wording, photographs and layout order preserved.

>

**Ardincaple Castle

 The remains of Ardincaple Castle, in the coastal town of Helensburgh, stand on a prominent site overlooking the Firth of Clyde. Built on land which was owned by the Macauleys from at least the 13th century, it is said to incorporate an original 12th century structure. But the 11th laird MacAuley created a large castellated mansion in the 16th century which swallowed the earlier building. The MacAuleys abandoned the castle and, on the death of the last chief (a title regained in 2002), the MacAuleys sold the roofless ruin to the Campbells in the 18th century. It then passed to the Colquhouns of Luss in 1890.

The castle was refurbished by its last owner, Henrietta MacAulay Stromberg, who died in 1931. A development company then turned the adjacent Tower Lawn into a housing estate. They would have demolished the castle too but the 1939-45 war intervened and the Admiralty requisitioned the castle. In 1957 they finally demolished the castle, leaving one tower standing. The tower now stands in a small children's play park.

The tower was used up to the early 1990s as a navigational aid by nuclear submarines returning to Faslane on the Gare Loch, further along the coast and is still used as a marker by ships in the Firth of Clyde.

**

**Return to the Castles Photo Library [Index](https://web.archive.org/web/20220817231710/http://www.rampantscotland.com/castles/blcastles_index.htm)
or go to the next castle: [Armadale CastleArmadale Castle](https://rampant-scotland.pages.dev/castles/blcastles_armadale.htm)**

---

## Source

From Rampant Scotland, restored from the page as it stood on 17 August 2022. [Original page](https://web.archive.org/web/20220817231710/http://www.rampantscotland.com/castles/blcastles_ardincaple.htm).

Links to pages not yet restored here lead to the original page or elsewhere on the web; 1 of 2 links on this page are restored on this site.