STALKER MARKETING PAD – Where it came from … Where it’s  going!

A internet business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise a persons creative instincts.  The  STALKER MARKETING PAD is home to internet  entrepreneurs, joined by/with people they know, like and trust;  anchored by those substituting their coat and tie and outdated marketing techniques for a proven internet marking system. On the “Pad’s” marquee, “Join the Community, Partner with Us and Stay for the Lifestyle.”

CRAIG STALKER

picture-21 Craig and/or Crag (defined as a mass of   rock forming a rugged cliff or headland (steep point of land extending out into a body of water) is often used in many place names in Scotland today, usually meaning,”hill”.

Surname, Stalker, in the Gaelic, Stalcaire, meaning hunter or falconer and/or agent derivative of Middle English, stalk(en), to stalk or approach stealthily, for example, in hunting deer.  It’s an occupational or nickname for hunter (a person proceeding covertly) of Scottish and Northern English origin.

Translation:  Craig Stalker … hill/rugged cliff hunter

THE PAD

Since the 15th Century

STALKER CASTLE

stalker_1153dcopy Stalker Castle, as it now stands, was built by the Stewarts of Appin sometime in the middle of the 15th century.  The island hosted an earlier stronghold held by the MacDougalls.  The lands passed to the Stewarts in 1388 as part of the landed title, Lords of Lorn.

A simple but stout rectangular keep of three storeys with a garret, Castle Stalker sits on a small islet at the edge of Loch Laich.  At high tide it is only reachable by boat.  King James IV of Scotland, a cousin of the Stewarts, often stayed at the Castle, using it as a base for hunting and hawking for which he had a passion; hence, possibly, its name.

Castle Stalker passed into the hands of the Campbells of Airds as a result of a drunken wager.  The Privy Council of 1684 ordered it to be given back to the Stewarts, and after a prolonged siege, the Stewarts retrieved it.  They lost it again in 1690 due to their support of a Jacobite cause.  The Campbells occupied the Castle as a residence or stronghold until approximately 1800, when they built a new house on the mainland, using the Castle primarily for  storage.

In 1908, the Castle was regained by the Stewarts who carried out some basic preservation work to stem its decay.  The present owners negotiated a purchase of the Castle in 1965 and spent the next 10 years rebuilding and restoring it, primarily through the efforts of family and friends,  to the point it is today, fully habitable.

Our thanks to Cheryl Garner and Phil  Wright,http://www.darkisle.com, without whose help this page may not have been possible.