Location: Scotland Map
Open: 10am - 6pm
(Last Admission 5pm)
13 Mar- 15 Nov daily
Admission:
|
Adults |
£4.95 |
|
Concessions |
£3.95 |
|
Family |
£10.50 |
|
Under 5s |
FREE |
|
Group Rate (min 12 persons) |
|
Eilean Donan is a small island in the United Kingdom located in Scotland, administered by the Council Area of Highland. It is connected to the island of Great Britain by a stone bridge which leads to a fortified castle occupying a good part of the island. This building, built and remodeled many times from the beginning of the 13th century, was abandoned in ruins in 1719 following a battle which severely damaged it. Bought by the MacRae clan, it was rebuilt between 1912 and 1932 preserving the architectural style. Since then, it has welcomed many visitors who consider it Scotland's most romantic castle. It is also one of the most photographed castles in Scotland and has also served as the setting for many films.
Eilean Donan is also called Ellandonan in English and Eilean Donan, Eilean Donnáin, Eilean Dhonnain or Ellendonan in Scottish Gaelic. The castle is called Eilean Donan Castle, Castle Donnan or Ellandonan Castle in English or Caisteal Eilean Donan and Caisteal Eilean Donnáin in Scottish. These toponyms mean “Isle of Donan” and “Castle of the Island of Donan” in French.
Eilean Donan is located in the North of the United Kingdom, in the North
West of Scotland. The nearest town is Kyle of Lochalsh located eight
miles, or about thirteen kilometers, to the west on the A87 road, near
the Isle of Skye. Administratively, the island is part of the Council
Area of Highland, in the former district of Skye and Lochalsh.
The island of Great Britain surrounds Eilean Donan to the
north-northwest with Ardelve Point to the south-west, as well as to the
east where the two islands are closest. It is here that the two islands
are linked artificially by a bridge but also naturally when the tide is
low. Eilean Tioram, another small uninhabited island, lies to the
northwest. Eilean Tioram and Eilean Donan are both part of the Inner
Hebrides, an archipelago of islands stretching along the western coasts
of Scotland. Eilean Donan is washed by the waters of Loch Duich coming
from the southeast, where it joins Loch Long coming from the northeast
to form Loch Alsh heading west. This set of three maritime lochs
communicates with the Atlantic Ocean via The Minch, a bay in the North
of Scotland, as well as by the Sea of the Hebrides located further
south.
Eilean Donan is an oval-shaped island, oriented in a
north-south1 direction and covering an area of only half a hectare, or
0.005 km. The highest point of the island does not exceed ten meters
above sea level, excluding constructions. Its only vegetation consists
of moorland and lawns from which a few rocks emerge. This outcropping
rock is part of the Lewisian complex composed of metamorphosed
continental crust dating from the Precambrian. Despite its small size,
the island has a source of fresh water6. Its climate, common to the rest
of Scotland, is oceanic. It is characterized by high rainfall of 1,500
millimeters annually distributed throughout the year and cool
temperatures ranging from 4 to 10.5 ° C on average but which do not
experience great seasonal variability.
The southern part of the
island is occupied by a fortified castle surrounded by a path connected
to the rest of the British road network by a stone arched bridge. This
bridge leads to a visitor reception center surrounded by a car park
stretching between the coast and the A871 road. This road makes it
possible to reach the Isle of Skye to the west via Dornie, the nearest
village to the island located a few hundred meters to the north1, or the
east of Scotland via the Great Glen, a valley partly occupied by Loch
Ness. The island has had only one inhabitant since 2001 according to
Statistics Scotland.
The history of Eilean Donan is intimately linked to
that of its castle. Before its construction, the island, probably
discovered in prehistoric times like the rest of Scotland, was
uninhabited and very little is said about it. Eilean Donan probably
takes its name from Donan d'Eigg, an Irish bishop who arrived in
Scotland around 580. He evangelized the Celtic population there and
lived as a hermit on the island before dying in 618. Many churches in
the area are dedicated to Donan and a religious community was founded on
Eilean Donan in the late seventh century. The island is chosen in
particular because of the stay of the monk, but also because it has a
source of fresh water. The future of this community until the
construction of the castle remains unknown, but a Pictish fortress would
have been built on the island.
Construction and alterations of
the castle
Eilean Donan Castle began to be built from the early 13th
century, possibly in 1220 or 1230, possibly by King Alexander II to help
strengthen the defenses against the Norwegians or by Farquar II, Earl of
Ross. At this time and since the 9th century, the Vikings raided
Scotland to the point of controlling and settling parts of the country.
These Viking possessions in the British Isles did not gain complete
independence from the Kingdom of Norway until the middle of the 13th
century and were then ruled by the Lords of the Isles. Anxious to defend
his lands, the Scottish King Alexander II chose Eilean Donan, located at
a strategic position at the crossroads of three maritime lochs, to
install a defensive work there. He died in 1249 fighting the Vikings,
but his son Alexander III was victorious in 1263 and recovered all the
Scottish lands they held. According to Scottish folklore, a son of a
chief of the Matheson clan would have acquired the power to communicate
with birds and, after being hunted by his father, traveled and became
rich in distant countries; his talents and his knowledge of the world
won him the favor of King Alexander II who entrusted him with the
mission of building a castle on Eilean Donan to defend the kingdom.
Eilean Donan Castle was expanded many times after its construction
to the point of occupying the entire island. The fortified castle was
then surrounded by a walkway reinforced by towers which encircled a high
keep at the highest point of the island. The dimensions of the castle
will finally be reduced to a fifth of this maximum size at the end of
the 14th century for obscure reasons, perhaps to adapt the work to the
number of soldiers available to defend it. Its redesign continued with
the addition in the 16th century of a platform in the eastern part of
the castle in order to receive cannons, the new firearm of the time.
The future King of Scotland Robert I would have taken refuge in
Eilean Donan while he was pursued by the English and it would be from
the castle that he would have left to reconquer his throne, recovering
it a few months later. The defensive work was thus used on many
occasions against foreign enemies but also during the struggles between
Scottish clans such as those of the MacRaes and the MacDonalds. The
castle was inhabited for a long period by men of the Clan MacKenzie who
acquired it in the 14th century and it is managed by a Constable. This
title, one of the most prestigious in Kintail at the time, returned to
the MacRaes following an act of war when Duncan MacRae, then a simple
scout at the castle, managed to defend it alone against an attack by the
Clan MacDonald in 1539. During the First English Revolution in the
mid-17th century, Royalist troops were temporarily stationed in the
castle as the Clan MacKenzie opposed the Republicans.
At the end of the 17th century, the Glorious Revolution opposed the
people and British parliamentarians, supported by the Dutch army and more
than 3,000 French Huguenots, to the supporters of King James II of England,
who was overthrown in 1688. Spain, which supports the claimant Stuart in
opposition to the British crown during the War of the Quadruple Alliance,
sends in 1719 to Eilean Donan a garrison of 46 or 48 Jacobite soldiers who
entrench themselves in the castle. They have a gunpowder factory at their
disposal and are waiting for arms and cannons from Spain. This armament of
the castle triggers hostilities between the Jacobite garrison and the
British government which came to power with the revolution. On May 10, 1719,
he dispatched three frigates, The Enterprise, The Flamborough and The
Worcester, which bombarded the castle for three days. The latter resists
quite well thanks to the thickness of its walls, which in some places reach
fourteen feet, or more than four meters. The final assault is led by the
infantry who regain control of the castle and discover there 343 barrels of
gunpowder assembled with the aim of blowing up the castle.
Following
this episode which greatly damaged the castle, it was abandoned in ruins and
the island remained uninhabited and unused for nearly 200 years.
In 1911, John MacRae-Gilstrap bought the island and undertook the
restoration of the castle there from 1912 with the help of Farquar
MacRae who played the role of works supervisor. First, the site is
cleared of scattered blocks to reveal the structure of the castle6.
According to Macrae family lore, on his return after World War I John
MacRae-Gilstrap found that Farquar had overstepped his role and started
to rebuild the castle because, he said, he had had a dream where he had
it. seen in detail in its original state6. It was not until 1920 that
the actual construction began, ending in July 1932, after twenty years
of work. At a cost of 250,000 pounds sterling, this rehabilitation is
the fourth major overhaul of the castle since its construction. The
reconstruction of the buildings and the restitution of their
architecture are done solely on the basis of the ruins still visible on
the site6. It was not until the work was completed that plans for the
castle were found in the archives of Edinburgh Castle. By comparing the
old and the new appearance of the castle, it turns out that the
reconstruction was very faithful to the original style.
The ruins
make it possible to guess the general organization of the castle3. This
consists of an interior courtyard with the dungeon in its northeast
corner, 57 feet (17 meters) long, 43 feet (13 meters) wide and the walls
10 feet (3 meters), as well as in its southern part another rectangular
building. Outside the courtyard is a seven-sided tower 20 feet (6
meters) in diameter and whose base is located below the inner courtyard.
This structure, which may be an ancient freshwater cistern, is connected
to the eastern walls by two walls that are 5 feet (1.5 meters) thick and
could have reached a height of 15 feet (4.5 meters). The surrounding
walls of the courtyard are pierced by two gates. The main one,
fortified, in the south wall as well as a smaller one in the west wall
which presumably allowed direct access to the castle from Loch Duich
with a small boat. The guard room, with fourteen feet (4 meters) thick
walls and a vaulted ceiling, the kitchens, where meals are prepared
without modern equipment, or the banquet room with its exposed beams,
are the rooms the most remarkable of the castle, which is entirely
furnished and decorated in the style of the Middle Ages12. Erected on
the occasion of the rebuilding of the castle, a stele in memory of
Canadians, Australians and members of the MacRae clan fallen in combat
during the First World War, stands outside the walls.
The castle remained family owned throughout the 20th century, even when the Conchra Charitable Trust was established in 1983. This charitable society was set up by members of the Clan MacRae to ensure the management, maintenance and restoration of the castle. Thus, among the recent developments carried out in the castle and its surroundings, there is the creation of six bedrooms on the third floor in 1996 as well as the renovation of the roof and the exterior walls of part of the castle in the early 2000s. Road access to the island and the castle was redeveloped in 1997 and 1998 by creating a central lane on the A87 road, the layout of which was redesigned, as well as the expansion and redevelopment of the car park and the center of visitors. This visitor center includes the point of sale of tickets for the castle, a souvenir shop and an exhibition center on the renovation of the castle. It also allows anyone who cannot climb the many steps of the castle to take a virtual tour of the place.