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Forum:	Individual Castles
Topic:	Existence of a Thompson family castle.

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T O P I C R E V I E W
annie-do As a genealogist I've read several reports of a Thompson family castle. Though no report has provided an exact location (city, county), it supposedly existed in past centuries in Ireland, or Scotland. The 'p' in the spelling of the name Thompson has me believe that it might've been in northern England. Help point me in the right direction, please.
Levan The name Thompson is associated with the Scottish MacTavish clan, whose main base is in North and South Knapdale - their charter was based in Dunardarie in Argyll (west coast of Scotland). Castles associated with the clan and its descendants (not necessarily with the same name) include Dunardry Castle (little or nothing remains) and Sween Castle (Castle Sweyn).
The spelling of Thompson (meaning son of Tom) is likely to have little bearing on what you find, as many variations of the name are found in Scotland. These variations are mainly due to the phonetic translation between Gaelic and English.
A quote from a MacTavish website:
"Taus (Tavis) became the progenitor of the Clan Tamhais... With the changing of the Gaelic to English in the mid 1600's, MacTamhais became (phonetically) MacTavish. MacTamhais literal translation is "Son of Tammais" (Son of Thomas). In old charters, the two names had many variant spellings (refer to section Septs and Connected Names), Other spellings found within the Charters of the Commons of Knapdale and Argyll appear as MacAvis, MacCamis, McCawis, McKavis, McKnavis, M'Ash, MacAnish, and MavTavifh, to name a few. It seems that from the end of the 1600's, the spelling, MacTavish and Thom(p)son were the most common." Other variations include:
MacThomas, Taweson, Tawesson, Teague, Thom, Thomas, Thomasin, Thomas(s)on, Thomassine, Thomerson, Thomes, Thompson, Thomson.
Some places to start looking:
MacTavish family http://www.mactavish.org/ http://www.tartans.com/clans/MacTavish/mactavish.html http://www.mactamhais.liquidweb.com/mactavishchiefs/tmc-index.htm
Sween Castle http://www.scotland247.co.uk/castle-sween2.htm http://www.ccsna.org/castles/sween.html
Dunardry Castle http://www.mactamhais.liquidweb.com/dunardry.html http://www.mactamhais.liquidweb.com/dunardrymap1634-1.html
Hope this helps
Levan