Medieval Moments

First Up on our trip is The Castle of Dunvegan. You're probably wondering why somebody would go to look around a castle when there's so much natural beauty to look at on The Isle Of Skye?! Yes, The Isle of Skye is renowned for it's rugged scenery and picturesque fishing villages, but one thing that often goes unheard of is it's Medieval castles.

The Dunvegan Castle may be from medieval times but it has not been abandoned, it has been occupied and cared for by the MacLeod family for some 800 years now! This makes it the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland, packed with clan history it makes a great day out for kids.

The beauty of the castle is matched by it's surroundings, the five acre formal gardens are certainly worth visiting, unfortunately we were trying to avoid a downpour of rain during our visit and didn't have much of an opportunity to look round the entire gardens. Even though our visit to the gardens was short, we did see a wide variety of nicely kept plants and even a selection of waterfalls! A considerable amount of work must go into the up keep of the gardens, you can see this just by looking at the photos!

One of my favourite parts of the garden is The Walled Garden. The Walled Garden was originally the castles vegetable grounds! But it is now full of a wide range of flowers, complimented by a Lilly pond, Pergola and a Glass House.

The Castle itself underwent a restoration around the 1840's and has remained the same ever since. Although the castle is often packed with paying visitors, it is still in use as a family home. All the rooms are fully decorated and well equipped, as you walk around you can really get a taste of what it must be like to live or work in the castle. The Castle consists of five separate buildings, all of which are open for you to explore. It can be a little underwhelming when you step inside, simply because the castle is smaller than you'd expect upon seeing it outside, but it contains some fascinating quirks that make up for that.

Inside the castle you'll see several oil paintings and many family heirlooms, the most treasured of which is the Fairy Flag. Supposedly from Syria, the Fairy Flag is a piece of woven silk that dates as far back as the 4th century AD! There are many fiction stories as to how the flag got it's name, one thing we do know as a fact is that the 27th chief of the Dunvegan Castle had the flag conserved by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. For a treasured heirloom it sure has done some traveling!

The castle is positioned on a high rock overlooking the Dunvegan Loch. Included in your ticket to the gardens is the freedom to wander the outskirts of the loch, it's a great opportunity to view the castle from a different angle. The castle does also provide seal trips via boat, unfortunately the boats weren't running when we decided to visit but we were lucky enough to spot some seals from the shore! As the castle loch has it's very own seal colony, Dunvegan is rated to be the best location for seeing the seals up close, although there are other trips available in places such as Portree.

As much as I enjoyed visiting The Castle Of Dunvegan, there's one medieval castle that really stood out to me, and that's The Eilean Donan Castle. As it turns out, The Eilean Donan castle is a very popular landmark in Scotland, however we were completely unaware of this at the time! For our journey up to The Isle Of Skye we had decided to stop at photo-worthy locations along the way so that the 13-hour car ride was a little more bearable, although we had no definite plans of where these places would be. After completing the majority of the journey, we thought we had made a fair amount of stops at stunning Scottish outlooks and were ready to drive on over to Skye. With only 15 minutes to go before arriving at Skye Bridge, we stumbled on the most Primitive looking castle I've ever seen! Here it is!

The typical Scottish weather does tend to make things seem a bit gloomy and dark, but in this instance it really adds to the mood of the castle! Seeing as our objective of the day was to find our accommodation in Skye, we decided not to have a look inside. But just wandering the outskirts of the caste was enjoyable! The scenery that surrounds the castle is very dramatic, in the distance across the loch you can actually see the Cuillin Mountain range in Skye! The castle itself was built as a defensive structure to protect the land of Kintail from the 13th Century vikings that wished to take control of the land. The Castle has changed in its size and appearance over the years, but remains one of the biggest medieval castles. With towers and a significant curtain wall it nearly encompasses the entire island. Without purchasing a ticket to the castle, you can make use of the recently refurbished gift shop and the visitor coffee shop. The coffee shop offers a wide range of locally-sourced refreshments, both hot and cold, so it's a great place to stop even if you don't wish to explore the castle and its grounds! The castle is packed full of history so it's no surprise that this is one of the most visited castles in Scotland.

So whatever your intentions are, maybe you're a history fanatic or maybe you're just looking for some unique scenery, these castles are waiting for you to visit them! Rain or sun, you're sure to have a great day when you're exploring something new!

#Places #IsleOfSkye #Scotland #Castle #Travel #Away