In May 1719, three warships of the Royal Navy anchored under a castle in the western Highlands, sent a boat with a flag of truce, and were fired on. That evening they opened up, took the castle with two boats' crews, carried 343 barrels of gunpowder out of it, carried 27 back, and blew the walls into the loch. The soldiers holding it were Spanish.

This episode is about Eilean Donan Castle at Dornie, near Kyle of Lochalsh, where Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh meet on the road to Skye. A castle stood on the island from the Middle Ages, a stronghold of the Mackenzies of Kintail kept from 1511 by the MacRaes as its hereditary constables — its keepers, never its owners. In 1719 it became the headquarters of a Jacobite rising backed by Spain: 307 Spanish regulars landed on Loch Alsh while the main fleet of 29 sail and 5,000 men was wrecked by a storm off Cape Finisterre. Captain Boyle's own despatch of 12 May 1719 explains why he destroyed it: a deserter had told him the Jacobite camp two miles away held 4,700 men. A month later the Spaniards made their stand in Glen Shiel.

For two hundred years Eilean Donan was rubble on a tidal island. In 1911 Lieutenant-Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap — a MacRae — bought it, and between 1912 and 1932 rebuilt it on the old footings to plans by the Edinburgh architect George Mackie Watson, adding the three-arched bridge that had never existed. The story that his clerk of works dreamed the vanished castle is a tradition; the plans were Watson's. Set into the foundation is the Clan MacRae Roll of Honour 1914–18, 468 names between two captured German field guns, with four lines of In Flanders Fields beside them. The most photographed castle in Scotland is, in the form you can visit, a war memorial with a castle on top — younger than the aeroplane, and honest about it.

Keepers, not owners: the most photographed castle in Scotland is a war memorial with a castle on top.

Watch the documentary version: https://youtu.be/0jaMnvAbSfI

Full written guide, with every source and visitor information:

https://stonekeepatlas.com/castles/eilean-donan-castle/

CHAPTERS

0:00 Cold open — the powder

1:52 Chapter 1 — Where three lochs meet

3:03 Chapter 2 — Keepers, not owners

4:59 Chapter 3 — The year Spain invaded

7:33 Chapter 4 — Ten days in May

11:39 Chapter 5 — Two hundred years of rubble

12:35 Chapter 6 — The soldier who bought the island

14:31 Chapter 7 — A memorial, not a replica

16:08 Chapter 8 — The castle that works for a living

17:16 Chapter 9 — What is left

KEY SOURCES

• W. K. Dickson (ed.), The Jacobite Attempt of 1719: Letters of James Butler, second Duke of Ormonde (Scottish History Society, 1895) — the expedition, the landing, Glen Shiel

• Captain Boyle's despatch of 12 May 1719, printed in The Historical Register vol. IV (1719) — the attack and the 343 barrels

• Historic Environment Scotland, Listed Building LB7209 — the 1912–32 rebuild

• ScARF Highland Archaeological Research Framework, case study: Eilean Donan Castle — the dating evidence

• MacGibbon & Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, vol. 3 (1889) — the ruin surveyed

• Alexander Macrae, History of the Clan Macrae (1910); War Memorials Online WMO/175359

• Eilean Donan Castle (Conchra Charitable Trust) — History, Timeline and Filming pages

• Full bibliography in the article linked above.

ABOUT THE SHOW

StoneKeep Atlas tells the real stories of Europe's great castles, palaces and fortresses — one definitive episode at a time. New episodes alongside the documentaries at youtube.com/StoneKeepAtlas.

Website: https://stonekeepatlas.com

CREDITS

Music: Envato Elements. Narration produced with synthetic voice.