A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Ellandonan, a small rocky island, crowned by a ruined, ivy-clad, ancient castle, in Kintail parish, Rossshire, at the forking of Loch Alsh into Lochs Long and Duich, 8 ½ miles E of Kyle Akin. The castle presents a picturesque appearance, backed by a noble range of hills. Occupying the site of a Caledonian vitrified -fort, it is said to have been given in 1266 to Colin Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Desmond, and to have been the scene in 1331 of a severe act of retributive justice by Randolph, Earl of Moray, then warden of Scotland, who executed in it fifty delinquents, and ranged their heads round its walls. Certain it is that it was long a stronghold of the Mackenzies of Kintail, and that it sustained in 1539 a famous attack by Donald Gorm, a claimant to the lordship of the Isles, whose assault on it cost him his life, and is celebrated in a ballad by Colin Mackenzie in Scott's Border Minstrelsy. In 1719 it was garrisoned by a Spanish force under William Mackenzie, fifth Earl of Seaforth, with the Earl Marischal and the Marquis of Tullibardine; but three English ships-ofwar soon battered its rude square tower to pieces, and its defenders retired to GLENSHIEL.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
|---|---|
| Feature Description: | "a small rocky island, crowned by a ruined, ivy-clad, ancient castle" (ADL Feature Type: "islands") |
| Administrative units: | Ross Shire ScoCnty |
| Place: | Eilean Donan |
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