Joseph Mallord William Turner

Ardtornish Castle is seen in this sketch from the west. Turner made this sketch and others of the castle as he steamed down the Sound of Mull on his return journey to Oban, having visited the isles of Skye and Staffa, and having sketched the castle on his outward journey (see folio 51; D26840). One sketch in the Sound of Mull no.1 sketchbook closely resembles the current sketch, though it shows the castle in outline only (Tate D26947; Turner Bequest CCLXXIV 6a). The castle ruins stand on a headland on the Morvern side of the Sound of Mull, just to the east of Loch Aline. Behind the castle is the hill Glais Bheinn. While many of Turner’s sketches of the castles and ruins that line the Sound of Mull are hard to distinguish, the present sketches of Ardtornish are identifiable by the distinctive square ruin with a gable of higher standing wall on the south-west façade.