Moy Castle

In 1360 the land on which Moy Castle stands was granted to Hector Reaganach Maclean, who became the 1st Laird of Lochbuie. He was a brother of Lachlan Lubanach Maclean of Duart, head of the wider Clan Maclean, and the grant effectively established Lochbuie as a distinct branch of the clan with its own seat on Mull. Construction of the tower house was probably begun by John Maclean, the 3rd Laird of Lochbuie, and completed by his son Hector, who became the 4th Laird. Most of the surviving stonework has been dated to the early 15th century, placing the main building campaign within this father-and-son succession.

The earliest surviving written record of the castle is a royal charter dated March 1494, in which John Maclean, the 5th Laird of Lochbuie, is confirmed as holding his lands from the Lord of the Isles. The document ties the castle directly into the wider Lordship that then governed much of the Hebrides and west Highlands. At some point after this the castle was captured from the Macleans of Lochbuie by Clan Campbell, a rival power whose influence was expanding across Argyll and the Isles during this period. The castle was later returned to the Macleans, restoring it as the family's seat.

Alterations and additions made toward the end of the 16th century altered parts of the original structure, showing that the castle continued to be actively maintained and adapted by its owners for well over a century after its first construction. The Macleans of Lochbuie abandoned Moy Castle in 1752, when a new house was built nearby to serve as the family's residence instead, leaving the tower to stand empty from that point on.

In 1945 the castle was used as a filming location for Powell and Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going!, alongside other sites on Mull. Between 2006 and 2015 stabilisation works were carried out to preserve the structure, and conservation work to further secure it was still continuing as of 2020.