Places to visit

Kinloch Castle - Caisteal Cheean Locha

Kinloch Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Caisteal Cheann Locha) is located by Loch Scresort on the Island of Rùm which is in the Inner Hebrides (Scottish Gaelic: Na h-Eileanan a-staigh) off the west coast of mainland Scotland. This is a late nineteenth century, early twentieth house which is now in need of significant repair. The rooms are laid out as they would have been in its heyday with notable sculptures and artworks. The castle is currently owned by NatureScot, one of the public bodies responsible for the nation's natural heritage.

Duntulm Castle - Caisteal Dùn Thuilm

Duntulm Castle image courtesy of BBC

Duntulm Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Caisteal Dùn Thuilm) is a 14th and 15th century ruined castle on the north coast of Trotternish peninsula. This is the northernmost peninsula of the Isle of Skye, Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, Alba). This area was the scene of conflict between the MacLeod and Macdonald clans. During the 17th century the castle was the seat of the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Sleat. After 1732 the castle fell into ruin after being abandoned, when a new residence was built about five miles to the south.

Flora MacDonald's Monument, Kilmuir, Skye

Portrait of Flora MacDonald 1749 by Scottish portrait-painter Allan Ramsay (13 October 1713 – 10 August 1784)

Kilmuir (Scottish Gaelic: Cille Mhoire) village is on the west coast of the Trotternish peninsula in the north of the island of Skye (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach). Flora MacDonald, the Scottish heroin who helped in the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie from Scotland after his defeat at Culloden, is buried in the Kilmuir cemetery. A high Celtic Cross marks her grave. Flora MacDonald (Gaelic: Fionnghal nic Dhòmhnaill; 1722 – 4 March 1790) was born in South Uist (Scottish Gaelic: Uibhist a Deas) in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and died at Kingsburgh (Scottish: Gaelic: Cinnseaborgh) in Skye. This young Presbyterian woman's heroic efforts to save the young Catholic Prince's life has resulted in her name being remembered with great respect in Scottish history.

 

Skye Museum of Island Life

The Croft House Kitchen image courtesy of Skye Museum of Highland Life

The Skye Museum of Island Life is a museum in Kilmuir, Skye, Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Cille Mhoire, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, Alba). There is a settlelment of thatched cottages that depict the life and conditions on the island towards the end of the nineteenth century. The museum is open from Easter until October from Monday to Saturday. The museum is located along the A855 about six miles north from Uig at Kilmuir/Cille Mhoire.

Dunvegan Castle

Dunvegan Castle stands on a raised rock above an inlet on the eastern side of Loch Dunvegan (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Dhùn Bheagain). The castle is located about a mile north of the village of Dunvegan, Isle of Skye, Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Bheagain, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, Alba). The original castle was built in the 13th century and added to over subsequent centuries with additional work being undertaken on some ten periods ranging from the 1200s to the 1850s. In the 19th century the whole castle was remodelled in a mock-medieval style. It is the seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod. 

Visitors can tour the castle and the grounds with boat trips on Loch Dunvegin.

Dun Ringill

Dun Ringill by Bryanmackinnon and courtesy of wikimedia commons.

This is an Iron Age Hillfort hollow drystone wall structure known as a Broch thought to date from the 1st Century BC. The site also served as a fourteenth century residence for the MacKinnons. The site is on the peninsula of Strathaird in the southwest of Skye/An t-Eilean Sgitheanach and is to the east from Kirkibost overlooking Loch Slapin.

Dun Sgathaich

Sgàthach an Eilean Sgitheanach - legendary Scottish warrior

Dun Sgathaich Castle also known as Duncaith Castle is a ruined castle on a rocky headland on the coast of the Isle of Skye, Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, Alba). The remains of the curtain wall can be seen, but few of the internal structures. They possibly date to the 13th century, but the castle was built on the site of an older fortification. In Celtic legend it is said the rock and castle takes it's name from the legendary warrior queen Sgathaich and the Irish hero Cu Chulainn came here to learn the arts of war. 

Caisteal Maol

Caisteal Maol

This was built by the MacKinnon's in the late fifteenth century. This ruined castle sits on a headland above the village of Kyleakin/Caol Acain on the east coast of the Isle of Skye/An t-Eilean Sgitheanach across the bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh/Caol Loch Aillse.

Armadale Castle - Caisteal Armadail

Armadale Castle by John Preston Neale (1780–1847) and engraved by John Rogers (circa 1808-circa 1888).

This is a ruined country house and former home of the MacDonalds. The ruined mansion house built in 1815 replaced an earlier building but was abandoned in the early twentieth century. The house is in the Clan MacDonald Skye 20,000 acre estate which houses the Museum of the Isles. The Centre is in the Sleat Peninsula in the south of Skye/An t-Eilean Sgitheanach close to Armadal.

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