Before leaving Skye, we visited the ruins of the Donald family castle, Armadale and a visit to the Museum of the Isles which tells all about the epic story of Clan Donald / MacDonald.
The castle is a mansion house first built here around 1790, facing south-east over the Sound of Sleat. In 1815 a square Tudor-Gothic mock-castle, intended for show rather than defense, was built next to the house. Since 1925 the castle, abandoned by the Macdonald family, has fallen into ruin. The gardens around the castle have been maintained, and are now home to the Clan Donald Centre, which operates the Museum of the Isles.
Leaving the castle, we headed to the bridge to the mainland. We stopped for a walk through Eilean Donan Castle which was used as a setting for the James Bond film “The World is Not Enough. The Castle had been destroyed in the early 18th century and fell into ruin. In the early 20th century, it was purchased and rebuild by Lt. John MacRae-Gilstrap. Macrae-Gilstrap also established a war memorial dedicated to the men of the MacRae clan who died in the First World War. The memorial is adorned with lines from John McCrae‘s poem “In Flanders Fields“.
Finally, we arrived at our next accommodation, Inverlochy Castle, a beautiful Victorian Era estate and baronial building with a rich history. Richly decorated rooms and garden walks.
