It was returned to the MacDougall in 1824 by General Duncan Campbell of Lochnell. A document confirmed that it had been taken from Gylen Castle by the Campbells, and it was viewed by the MacDougall chief before Major Campbell's death in 1819.
It was hidden until the early 19th century when it was found in a chest by Major Campbell of Bragleen after his return from fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. The castle was captured and burned by David Leslie, Lord Newark in 1647 and the brooch was taken. The brooch was kept at Dunollie Castle until being moved to Gylen Castle on the island of Kerrera during the Covenanter Wars. According to tradition, the attackers tried to dismount Robert the Bruce but only pulled off his cloak and brooch.
The attack was revenge for the murder of John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, a nephew of John of Argyll and rival for the throne of Scotland. In 1306 the Battle of Dalrigh took place where Robert the Bruce of Scotland was ambushed by John of Argyll, chief of the Clan MacDougall. Findlay in 1999 preferred the earlier part of the 16th century, and Catherine Gillies, curator for the clan, says, "The re-setting has been narrowed by style and historiography to roughly the third quarter of the 16th century", but still uses the description "medieval". Maybe the original brooch fell to pieces and this one was substituted for it". David Caldwell, curator of the Scottish medieval collections at the National Museums of Scotland, is quoted as saying, "It is a very important piece of west Highland art, but it dates from the mid 15th century, so cannot be Bruce’s. The British Museum describes it as "dated on stylistic grounds to late 16th C but incorporating earlier rock crystal charmstones in which there was revived interest in the 16th C.", and dates its own Lochbuie Brooch, which it believes was by the same hand, to "1600 (circa)". The dating of the Brooch of Lorn varies somewhat, though all contemporary specialists are clear that it is from well after Robert the Bruce's lifetime. The use of "turrets" as decoration was popular in late medieval jewellery, but usually in far less elaborate forms, with brooches having a number of small projecting turrets around a ring forming the brooch. The style of decoration appears influenced by European workshops, and the brooch lacks the post- Insular motifs seen in the Lochbuie Brooch, and other late medieval West Highland objects in various media.
There is "a profusion of filigree work in the form of stellate appliqué ornaments and cabled borders". Underneath the central stone is an empty compartment (said in 1905 to contain fragments of human bone), probably designed to hold a relic the stone is set well above the base disc, and is surrounded by eight detached chatons or turrets, about 1.25 inches high, and each topped by a Scottish freshwater pearl. The silver disc at the back of the brooch is about 4.5 inches across, and the brooch is secured by a hinged pin (a later replacement) and catch behind it. In the following months a replica made in recent years was exhibited in six local libraries in Argyll. All three were exhibited together in the British Museum's exhibition Shakespeare: Staging the World in 2012. The others are the Lochbuy or Lochbuie Brooch in the British Museum, and the Ugadale or Lossit Brooch, also still in private hands. The brooch is one of three West Highland 16th-century silver turreted brooches centred on charmstones, though the brooches are thought to be resettings of stones which already had reputations. Modern copy of the Ugadale or Lossit Brooch, a 16th-century "turreted" brooch, which also contained a relic.
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