Loch an Eilein Castle is believed to have been built between 1222-98 by the Bishop of Moray who chose the south end of the island to build a half house surrounded by a defensive wall. In the 1380s, the notorious Wolf of Badenoch (Alexander Stewart, a younger son of King Robert II of Scotland and Robert the Bruce’s grandson) likely constructed a sturdy tower house as a fortified hunting lodge on the north end of the island of 10m x 8.5m with walls 1.8m thick. It also had a barrel-vaulted cellar, first floor hall and upper chamber. In 1600 Patrick Grant of Rothiemurchus built a connection curtain wall between the hall house and the lower tower to increase security in emergencies. The most notable skirmish to take place at Loch a Eilein was in 1690, when the defeated Jacobites from the Battle of Cromdale besieged the castle. Furthermore, in 1745 after the Battle of Culloden, the widow of the 5th Laird, Jean Gordon, (alias Grizel Mhor a well known Jacobite Lady), sheltered fugitives in the castle. Today the castle ruins are all that remain. The island on which the castle sits, decreased in size in the 1770s when a sluice built to enable felled timber to be floated down the Spey, raised the water level. The water now obscures the zigzag causeway once said to connect the castle to the shore. #scotland #castle #history #travel #visitscotland
0.0% ERengagement of this clip — above the author's average (0.00%)
top 30%outperforms 70% of the author's clips
51%of the author's average views
