- TITLE
- Castle Spioradain
- EXTERNAL ID
- QZP40_3443_P045
- PLACENAME
- Castle Spioradain
- DISTRICT
- Inverness
- OLD COUNTY/PARISH
- INVERNESS: Inverness and Bona
- PERIOD
- 1810s
- SOURCE
- Highland Libraries
- ASSET ID
- 31764
- KEYWORDS
- castles
spirits
Bona Castle
Castle Spioradain
rivers
Caledonian Canal
ruins
fords

Bona Castle was also known as Castle Spioradain. The castle ruins stand on a mound at a ford across the River Ness between the Caledonian Canal and Abban Water, approximately 200 yards east of Bona Lighthouse. The castle was a ruin before the Caledonian Canal was planned and the foundations were submerged when the water level of the loch was raised by weir at Dochfour during construction.
Spioradain comes from the Gaelic for 'spirits'. It is said that the castle was haunted by the ghosts of some Cameron hostages who were murdered there. It is also said that the trees growing in the ruins, rubbing together, made strange, ghostly noises which could account for the castle's name.
This illustration is one of a set bound with an anonymous manuscript entitled 'The Ancient and Honourable Family of Calder', from the Fraser-Mackintosh Collection at Inverness Library