range of the castle rebuilt and enlarged in 1614, and constructed a new range incorporating a chapel in the south-east part of the courtyard. The ambitious Black Duncan also began construction of Finlarig Castle at the west end of Loch Tay, and improved farmland around Finlarig, Kilchurn and Balloch Castles. In 1629, Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel was born at the Castle. His mother, Lady Margaret Campbell, was a daughter of Robert, 3rd Baronet, and had married a Cameron of Lochiel. In 1681 Sir John Campbell, 5th Baronet, was created Earl of Breadalbane and Holland. He took advantage of the turbulence of the times, negotiating with Jacobite rebels at the same time as serving William III. In 1693 he promoted a scheme to pacify the Highlands, and as part of this he began conversion of Kilchurn into a modern barracks, capable of housing 200 troops. His main addition was the three-storey L-shaped block along the north side. In 1714, on the death of Queen Anne, Breadalbane held a conference of Jacobites at Kilchurn, and he subsequently joined the Earl of Mar's Jacobite rising of 1715. Following the failure of the rising he returned home to find pro-government members of his household had turned Kinchurn and Finlarig over to Alexander Campbell of Fonab, to whom Breadalbane was obliged to surrender in February 1716. He remained under house arrest at Taymouth until his death the next year. Kilchurn was also used as a government garrison during the 1745 Jacobite rising. The Campbells attempted, unsuccessfully, to sell Kilchurn to the government after they moved in 1740 to the reconstructed Taymouth Castle. In 1760, the castle was badly damaged by lightning and was completely abandoned; the remains of a turret of a tower, still resting upside-down in the centre of the courtyard, attest to the violence of the storm. The castle was unroofed by 1770. J M W Turner painted the castle on one of his tours of Scotland in the early 19th century. In 1817 the water level in Loch Awe was altered, so that the castle now stands on a long peninsula. MacGibbon and Ross surveyed the castle in about 1887, after which restoration works appear to have altered some of the castle's original features. The ruin is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and is open to the public during the summer. Access is either by boat from Lochawe