Bailliery of Cowal
The Bailliery of King’s Cowal, the country of the once-powerful Clan Lamont, having been previously granted to Lord Boyd, was forfeited by his treason, and in 1469 was annexed by Act of Parliament to the Crown, hence it early name of “King’s Cowale”. The name Cowale appears as early as 1373, when Robert III granted a charter to John, son of Alan, of the curia of Cowal. Its boundaries – from the gift of James III to John, Earl of Argyle, dated 26th February 1472 (1472 R.M.S. 1110) of the hereditary offices of “Justiciarie, Camerarte, Vicecomitatus et Balliatus” (Justiciar, chamberlain, sheriff and Baillie) within the limits of the lordship the “Kings Cowal” – seem to have extended from Otter Ferry and Ardlamont Point on the shores of Loch Fyne on the West, to Holy Loch and Toward Point on the east, having an indented seaboard on the south, in which are Lochs Striven en Riddon, and on the north a hinterland of mountains. Through this territory runs almost in a straight line from west to east the ancient road between and connecting the ferries on Loch Fyne and the Holy Loch.
(source Clan Lamont Society Journal December 1926 – Strongholds of the Lamonds, Barons of Cowal; extracts from a paper read to the Clan Lamont Society on 27th March, 1907)
