A farm and former settlement on the northern shore of Loch Finlaggan on the island of Islay, Finlaggan lies 2 miles (3.5 km) west southeast of Port Askaig. It takes its name from St. Findlugan, an Irish monk, who was a follower of St. Columba and may have founded a community here in the early 7th C. However it is as the centre of power of the Lords of the Isles that Finlaggan is best known. Islay became the centre of a Norse Kingdom that extended from the Isle of Man and Antrim in the south to Lewis in north, and included most of the Inner and Outer Hebrides, together with the coast of Ross-shire. Its most famous leader was Somerled who united the kingdom in the 12th C. This kingdom operated largely independently of both Norway and Scotland from the 9th C. until it was brought to heal by Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll, under the orders of King James IV in 1493.
The footings of several buildings remain, with the ruins of a castle of the Lords of the Isles stand on Eilean Mor, in the loch and, on another small island close by, the Council of the Lords of the Isles met. These events are interpreted by the Finlaggan Visitor Centre.
