Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour, an open thread conveniently located at the intersection of Religion and Politics. I will be doing a public lecture in February on the castles of Ireland and Scotland and so today’s Coffee Hour is going to look at an Scottish castle: the Eilean Donan Castle.
The Eilean Donan Castle is situated on a small tidal island on Loch Duich. Eilean Donan means “island of Donnán” and was named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint who was martyred in 617. The first fortified castle was built in the thirteenth century, and became a stronghold for Clan Mackenzie and their allies Clan Macrae. In 1719, the castle was partly destroyed by government ships because of Clan Mackenzie’s involvement in the Jacobite rebellions. In the twentieth century, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap had the castle reconstructed to produce the present buildings.
We toured the castle as a part of a CIE Coach Tour. No photographs of the interior were allowed. Below are some of the photographs of the castle’s exterior.
Open Thread
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