Eilean Donan Castle
Eilean Donan Castle stands on a small tidal island at the junction of three sea lochs in the western Highlands of Scotland, its silhouette of towers and battlements reflected in the dark water below and backed by the mountains of Kintail creating what has become the most photographed castle scene in Scotland and one of the most reproduced images of the country worldwide. The castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, destroyed by government forces in 1719 during a Jacobite rising, and meticulously rebuilt between 1912 and 1932 by Lieutenant Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap, creating the building that has become through its near-universal presence in Scottish tourism imagery virtually synonymous with the Highlands themselves.
The setting at the meeting of Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh is exceptional even by the standards of the western Highland coast. The three lochs converging here create a wide expanse of water in every direction, the mountains rising steeply from the water's edge and the evening light catching the castle walls in ways that explain the compulsion to photograph this scene that has afflicted visitors since photography became widely accessible. The causeway connecting the island to the mainland allows visitors to walk around the building and appreciate the relationship between the architecture and the water from every angle.
The castle is associated with the Clan Macrae, who served as hereditary constables to the Mackenzie lords of Kintail, and the Macrae-Gilstrap restoration was both a personal tribute to his clan's history and a practical act of preservation. The interior was rebuilt with careful attention to historical accuracy and houses a collection of clan-related artefacts, Jacobite memorabilia and historical displays. The memorial to Macrae soldiers who died in the First World War gives the restoration a personal and communal dimension beyond architectural preservation.
The road through Kintail toward the Five Sisters and over the Ratagan Pass provides some of the finest Highland scenery accessible by car in Scotland.