Isle of Skye
The legendary Isle of Skye lies in the heartland of the ancient Scottish clans, and today we had the opportunity to experience two of its ancestral castles, associated with the MacDonalds, and with the MacLeods, respectively. Eilean a’ Cheo – the Misty Isle – lived up to its name with a vengeance. All day the clouds hung dark and ominous over the great Black and Red Cuilllin mountains, sometimes filled with fine rain and mist that swelled the white waterfalls tumbling down the hillsides, and sometimes opening to cast bright rainbows around and even below us over the sea-lochs.
Armadale Castle, in the southwest corner of the island, has been home to the MacDonalds since the 1600s. There, in 1750, four years after she rescued Bonnie Prince Charlie, Flora MacDonald was married to Alan MacDonald, just before they departed for a new life in North Carolina. Samuel Johnson, with his friend Boswell, visited there in 1773, and even then was impressed with the mature gardens. Today the mansion house, which was rebuilt twice in the 1800s, survives mostly as a sculpted ruin, a perfect centrepiece for the extensive gardens and grounds overlooking the Sound of Sleat, which are also the setting for the exquisitely-presented Clan Donald Centre and ‘Museum of the Isles’.
After lunch (pausing only to drop off some of our number for an intrepid hike of up to seven miles) we travelled though the woodlands, heather moorlands, glens and scattered crofting villages of Skye to Dunvegan Castle. This castle is anything but a ruin, as it is still the residence of the Chief of the Clan MacLeod, and has been since the origins of the clan, perhaps sometime in the 1300s. It combines an imposing exterior and all the usual dungeons and cannons, with homely living rooms, decorated with portraits of the clan chiefs going back into the mists of time. From the tower windows are magnificent views of the surrounding islands and sea-routes to the north and west. Around the castle have been laid out some of the loveliest gardens, some formal, some natural, which are a joy to explore.
The legendary Isle of Skye lies in the heartland of the ancient Scottish clans, and today we had the opportunity to experience two of its ancestral castles, associated with the MacDonalds, and with the MacLeods, respectively. Eilean a’ Cheo – the Misty Isle – lived up to its name with a vengeance. All day the clouds hung dark and ominous over the great Black and Red Cuilllin mountains, sometimes filled with fine rain and mist that swelled the white waterfalls tumbling down the hillsides, and sometimes opening to cast bright rainbows around and even below us over the sea-lochs.
Armadale Castle, in the southwest corner of the island, has been home to the MacDonalds since the 1600s. There, in 1750, four years after she rescued Bonnie Prince Charlie, Flora MacDonald was married to Alan MacDonald, just before they departed for a new life in North Carolina. Samuel Johnson, with his friend Boswell, visited there in 1773, and even then was impressed with the mature gardens. Today the mansion house, which was rebuilt twice in the 1800s, survives mostly as a sculpted ruin, a perfect centrepiece for the extensive gardens and grounds overlooking the Sound of Sleat, which are also the setting for the exquisitely-presented Clan Donald Centre and ‘Museum of the Isles’.
After lunch (pausing only to drop off some of our number for an intrepid hike of up to seven miles) we travelled though the woodlands, heather moorlands, glens and scattered crofting villages of Skye to Dunvegan Castle. This castle is anything but a ruin, as it is still the residence of the Chief of the Clan MacLeod, and has been since the origins of the clan, perhaps sometime in the 1300s. It combines an imposing exterior and all the usual dungeons and cannons, with homely living rooms, decorated with portraits of the clan chiefs going back into the mists of time. From the tower windows are magnificent views of the surrounding islands and sea-routes to the north and west. Around the castle have been laid out some of the loveliest gardens, some formal, some natural, which are a joy to explore.
