DUNVEGAN answers the popular ideal of a Scottish castle. It commands a natural harbour inlet at the head of Loch Dunvegan and the rugged outcrop of basalt from which the walls rise is washed on three sides by the tide. The castle has been a possession of the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan for nearly eight centuries, a determined connection through many vicissitudes of fortune that echoes their blunt motto: ‘hold fast’. Now, after more than a decade of repair and ambitious restoration undertaken by the present and 30th chief of the clan, the immediate future of this exceptional building is being secured.
As their name suggests, the MacLeods claim descent from a certain Leòd, who established what amounted almost to a petty kingdom in Skye and its surrounds in the early 13th century, then a region tied by the sea into the political and cultural orbit of Norway. He enjoyed the support of Olaf the Black, King of Man and the Isles (possibly his father; Leòd’s parentage remains a matter of debate), as well as several of Olaf’s close allies. These included the Earl of Ross and his foster father, Paul Balkasson, the Seneschal of Skye.
Dunvegan came to Leòd through an advantageous marriage to the heiress of a certain Armuin MacRaild. It can only have been one of several residences in his possession and already had a long history of human occupation. Certainly, there is widespread evidence of Pictish occupation in the immediate locality and the name Dunvegan probably means the fort or ‘dun’ of Began, a reference to a previous and otherwise forgotten Norse occupant of the naturally defensible and strategically placed castle rock.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin August 23, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin August 23, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
A tapestry of pinks
THE garden is now entering its season of vigour and exuberance.
Bringing the past to life
An event hosted by COUNTRY LIFE at WOW!house is one of the highlights of a programme that features some of the biggest names in interior design
This isle is full of wonder
GEOLOGY? A bit like economics, the famously boring science? I confess I suffered the prejudice—agriculture and history being my thing, both of them vital in every sense— but Robert Muir-Wood’s voyage through the past 66 million years of the making of the British landscape has biblical-level drama on almost every other page. Flood, fire, ice… or, perhaps, the formation in rock, sand, mud and lava of these isles is best conceived of as fierce poetry.
Empire protest
Without meaning to issue a clarion call for independence, E. M. Forster perfectly captured the rising tensions of the British Raj. One hundred years later, Matthew Dennison revisits the masterpiece A Passage to India
Hops and dreams
A relative of marijuana, hops were a Teutonic introduction to British brewing culture and gave rise to the original working holiday
Life and sol
The sanctuary of the Balearic Islands has enchanted a multitude of creative minds, from Robert Graves to David Bowie
'Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures'
Giving himself neck ache from constantly looking upwards, John Lewis-Stempel makes the most of a sunny May day harvesting ‘tree hay’ and marvelling at the myriad wildlife including flies and earwigs–that reside on bark
'Plans are worthless, but planning is everything'
Country houses great and small were indispensable to D-Day preparations, with electricity and sanitation, well-stocked wine cellars, countesses to run the canteens and antique furniture to feed the stoves
The darling buds of May
May Morris shared her father’s passion for flowers, embroidery and Iceland, but was much more than William’s daughter. Influential both as a designer and as a teacher, she championed the rights of workers, particularly women, as Huon Mallalieu reveals
Achilles healed
Once used to comfort the lovelorn or soothe the wounds of Greek heroes, yarrow may now have a new starring role in sustainable agriculture