Duntulm Castle
It seems that if you were anyone of importance in the Scottish Highlands you had to live in a well defended castle. This is an area subjected to of years and years of conflict, first from Norse invaders and later clan rivalry. Duntulm here is believed to have been first fortified in the Iron Age, and the site continues to be associated with the name Dùn Dhaibhidh or "David's Fort". Later in life it was fortified by the Norse, and subsequently by their successors, the MacLeods of Skye. Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries the Earls of Ross and the Lords of the Isles fought for control of the area, and the struggle for power continued in the late mediaeval period between the MacLeods and the MacDonalds of Sleat who eventually won control.
But it wasn’t just clan warfare, there was family conflict too. Hugh MacDonald, cousin of Donald Gorm, the 9th chief, planned to kill his cousin and take his place. The plot was discovered, and Hugh went into hiding but was eventually captured in 1601 and thrown into the dungeon at Duntulm, where he was left to die with nothing but a plate of salty beef and an empty water pitcher to torment him. Not surprisingly, the starving prisoner went mad before he died. His ghost is said to haunt the castle ruins, screaming madly.
Sadly, it is but a ruin now; some of the castle's stonework has been reused for local building projects, while other parts have been eroded away. One tower simply collapsed into the sea in 1990. But clearly, it was once an impressive fortification, standing on its sheer cliff of basalt on three sides, looking across sea to the Isle of Lewis in the distance. On the landward side a deep ditch was cut down through the rock to a depth of up to 15 feet. The main entrance was across this ditch, presumably by way of a drawbridge, now vanished.
The MacDonalds made a number of improvements to the castle but abandoned it in about 1730 in favour of nearby Monkstadt House. One reason for the move to Monkstadt was supposedly because the castle was haunted by at least four ghosts. Firstly there was the ghost of Hugh MacDonald, and then there was that of Donald Gorm himself, then there was a lady whose husband rejected her after she lost an eye in an accident, and perhaps the final straw, the ghost of a nursemaid who allowed the infant son of the laird to fall to his death from a window, and who was punished by being set adrift on the Atlantic ocean. Must have been a bit like Hogwarts...
Duntulm Castle
It seems that if you were anyone of importance in the Scottish Highlands you had to live in a well defended castle. This is an area subjected to of years and years of conflict, first from Norse invaders and later clan rivalry. Duntulm here is believed to have been first fortified in the Iron Age, and the site continues to be associated with the name Dùn Dhaibhidh or "David's Fort". Later in life it was fortified by the Norse, and subsequently by their successors, the MacLeods of Skye. Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries the Earls of Ross and the Lords of the Isles fought for control of the area, and the struggle for power continued in the late mediaeval period between the MacLeods and the MacDonalds of Sleat who eventually won control.
But it wasn’t just clan warfare, there was family conflict too. Hugh MacDonald, cousin of Donald Gorm, the 9th chief, planned to kill his cousin and take his place. The plot was discovered, and Hugh went into hiding but was eventually captured in 1601 and thrown into the dungeon at Duntulm, where he was left to die with nothing but a plate of salty beef and an empty water pitcher to torment him. Not surprisingly, the starving prisoner went mad before he died. His ghost is said to haunt the castle ruins, screaming madly.
Sadly, it is but a ruin now; some of the castle's stonework has been reused for local building projects, while other parts have been eroded away. One tower simply collapsed into the sea in 1990. But clearly, it was once an impressive fortification, standing on its sheer cliff of basalt on three sides, looking across sea to the Isle of Lewis in the distance. On the landward side a deep ditch was cut down through the rock to a depth of up to 15 feet. The main entrance was across this ditch, presumably by way of a drawbridge, now vanished.
The MacDonalds made a number of improvements to the castle but abandoned it in about 1730 in favour of nearby Monkstadt House. One reason for the move to Monkstadt was supposedly because the castle was haunted by at least four ghosts. Firstly there was the ghost of Hugh MacDonald, and then there was that of Donald Gorm himself, then there was a lady whose husband rejected her after she lost an eye in an accident, and perhaps the final straw, the ghost of a nursemaid who allowed the infant son of the laird to fall to his death from a window, and who was punished by being set adrift on the Atlantic ocean. Must have been a bit like Hogwarts...