An Inveraray Castle has been standing on the shores of Loch Fyne since the 1400s, although the impressive castle we know today was inspired by a sketch by Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard in the 1700s.

Vanbrugh died soon afterwards, but the great architect's gem of an idea became the base of the house which the 3rd Duke was eventually to build. The foundation stone was laid in 1746 and what followed was the construction - to a design by the architects Roger Morris and William Adam - of a truly modern, baroque, Palladian and Gothic-style castle, architecturally before its time.

Both Morris and Adam died before the castle was finished and Adam's sons, James and Robert, brought the castle to completion 43 years after the first stone was laid.

The castle we know today was the result of a fire in 1877, which resulted in the addition of the third floor and conical roofs on the corner towers.