Dunvegan Castle

Dunvegan Castle stands on a rocky promontory one mile north of Dunvegan village on the Isle of Skye. The castle overlooks Loch Dunvegan, a sea inlet on the island’s east coast. It has been the seat of the MacLeod clan chiefs for centuries. The first defences appeared in the 13th century, and the main tower was built late in the 14th. In the 19th century the whole complex was given a mock-medieval look. The castle’s long history is visible in its different parts. A curtain wall from the 1200s once enclosed the rock. The late-14th-century tower resembles those at Kisimul and Caisteal Maol. Around 1500 Alasdair Crotach added the Fairy Tower as a separate building. In 1623 Ruairidh Mòr built the state apartment, linking older parts of the castle. Later chiefs added mock battlements and a drawbridge approach. Visitors walk across the drawbridge to reach the castle entrance. Inside, the state apartment shows 17th-century decoration. The Fairy Tower still stands apart, its name linked to clan legend. Among the heirlooms kept here are the Dunvegan Cup, the Fairy Flag and Sir Rory Mor’s Horn. The castle’s elevated site gives views over the loch and surrounding hills.