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Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan Castle

George Mackie Watson

Photo: Diliff · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Kintail, United Kingdom
Client / Owner
John Macrae-Gilstrap
Year
Completed 1932
Access
Tickets required
Typology
Cultural
Style
—

The article links the first curtain-wall castle on Eilean Donan to Alexander II, who reigned from 1214 to 1249, though it names no builder and calls the founding legend unverified. A tower house was probably added in the 14th century. The castle later became a Mackenzie of Kintail stronghold, with Macrae and Maclennan garrisons.

Royal Navy ships bombarded the castle on May 10 and 11, 1719, and it was destroyed. The article notes that the Macraes may have caused the gunpowder explosion themselves. Lt. Col. John Macrae-Gilstrap commissioned the rebuild, drawn by the Edinburgh architect George Mackie Watson, and it ran from 1919 to 1932.

The article calls the keep a romantic reincarnation of early 20th-century castle revivals, not a genuinely medieval building. The Conchra Charitable Trust has owned it since 1983.

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