Two weeks ago, I wrote part 1 of the post about Castle Tioram. If you missed it, you can
click here to read it. Today I want to continue with more info about the castle.
My friends and I spent a few hours out in one of the most remote areas of Scotland, on the west coast. I don't know how many hours we explored and took thousands of photos (among the 3 of us) because time ceased to exist for me. I wore no watch and I didn't pay attention to the time on my phone. I love how wild and untamed the area around the castle is. The heather was in full bloom (early September) and it was a clear, warm day. This was the highlight of the trip for me and a dream come true. I'd been looking forward to visiting this castle for a long time, especially since it's the inspiration for the setting of
Highlander Unbroken and
My Captive Highlander. Below are more photos I took while walking around the castle and climbing over the piles of rocks and boulders. Good hiking shoes were a necessity.
As mentioned in my previous post, Ranald was the first chieftain of Clan Macdonald of
Clanranald. He was granted the "Castle of Elantyrim" (Eilean Tioram)
and this was confirmed by Robert II in 1373.
In 1411, Alan, the 4th chief of Clanranald,
fought in the Battle of Harlaw in which Lord of the Isles and his Highland army
defeated the forces of the Scottish Crown. Alan was known to have imprisoned
other Highland chiefs in his dungeon. In 1509, Alan was captured, imprisoned
and executed by James I. The 5th chief, his son Raonuil Ban, had
much the same history and was hanged in 1513 by the king. Dugald was the 6th
chief. His own clansmen murdered him and the chieftainship taken over by his
uncle Alexander. The 8th chief was John of Moidart, the natural son
of Alexander. Although there were more legitimate heirs, John was chosen by the
clan to lead them. He obtained a charter to the lands around Tioram in 1532.
Unfortunately this charter was revoked in 1540 when John went against the king
and supported the Lordship of the Isles instead. James V imprisoned him and
granted the charter to one of the legitimate heirs, Ranald Galda (the stranger)
who had been raised by his mother's clan, the Frasers. Clanranald rejected
Ranald Galda as chief and nicknamed him "Ranald of the hens" because
he had (inferior) chicken served at his inaugural feast instead of ox.
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| View from the beach below the castle. |
After James V died in 1542, John of Moidart was released
from prison and headed back to Moidart where the clan reinstated him as chief,
rejecting Ranald Galda. In 1544, when the Frasers tried to reinstate Ranald Galda
as chief of Clanranald, a horrible battle ensued at Loch Lochy. Ranald and Lord
Lovat were killed during the battle and John was the victor.
This small stone building sits near the beach. Since it
doesn't appear on early site maps, it is believed to have been built in the
late 1800s and was probably either a bathing house or a smoke house.
John led the clan with without much of note over the next few years, although he was still rebellious to the crown. In 1554, Marie de Guise, the Regent, decided she wanted the Moidart area brought more under the control of the crown. She commissioned the Earl of Huntly to carry out her orders. But when Huntly reached the area around Fort
Augustus, he decided an overland advance through the Highlands would be impossible because of the rough, nearly impassible terrain. Instead, the Duke of Argyll brought his warships up along the coast to
bombard the castle with cannons and other artillery from the shore. John of
Moidart, the chief of Clanranald at the time, had gone overland to meet
Huntly's army, but once news of Argyll's attack reached him, he raced home and
was victorious over the shore battery. He sent the Duke of Argyll packing.
One of these cannonballs was found in the castle wall hundreds of years later. John retained possession of the castle and lands until his death at the castle in 1584.
The Clanranalds backed the Royalists during the Civil War of
the 1600s and retained Castle Tioram but under the overlordship of the Dukes of
Argyll.
The castle was expanded in the 1680s. They added another
story to the tower house and a new range of buildings were built along the
south west wall. It was not used very much however because Allan of Moidart,
the 14th chief, moved out of the castle to a less remote location.
In 1715, during the Jacobite Uprising, the castle was
occupied by government troops and reported to be in bad condition. Allan of
Moidart recaptured the castle and set fire to it so it couldn't be used by the
government. He was killed shortly thereafter at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. In
the 1745 uprising, Clanranald again sided with the (losing) Jacobites, but
still managed to retain ownership of the castle for the next hundred plus years.
The castle and island were sold in 1905. It passed through
several owners until being purchased by James Wiseman MacDonald in 1926. It
changed owners again, several times and was put on the market in 1996 for
100,000 GBP. But then the castle was purchased in 1997 by Anta Estates Ltd. For
300,000 GBP.
What followed turned out to be a dispute between the owners and the Scottish Ministers because the building is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The
owners wanted to turn it into a private dwelling but also a tourist center
which would require access roads being built onto the island, electricity,
plumbing, etc. which would likely destroy much of the history and beauty of the
site. The narrow, one track roads leading into the area are not large enough to
handle much tourism traffic. So the two sides are in a standoff in which
neither can act while the building further crumbles. This to me is very sad. Even
the pigeons which live in the castle cause the masonry to fall, and the vines
and plants growing in the walls further pry the stones apart and loosen them. If
only the building could be repaired and preserved in its current state, which
would require a lot of work and millions. I've visited several ruined castles
which have been preserved, such as Kilchurn or Dunnottar. They are obviously
still ruins, but the masonry has been stabilized, the plants removed, and there
are no dangers from falling stones or further decay. And it's possible to safely go inside them. I hope this castle can be
preserved soon because it's one of Scotland's most amazing treasures.
Highlander Unbroken is receiving some fantastic reviews!
5 stars "Highlander Unbroken by Vonda Sinclair is one of the best Highlander Historical Romances of this year! Truly a masterpiece and a book that you will want to add to your collection! Vonda Sinclair's writing is pure genius, she writes with such passion and vigor. Her characters are each unique and spirited! She uses such vivid descriptions throughout her book that makes the reader truly feel as if they are there in Scotland; tasting the food, smelling the beautiful heather, walking the castle halls and marching with the highlanders into battle! I absolutely fell in love with this book and highly recommend this to anyone! I give this a high 5 stars and if I could, I’d give it 100 stars!" Teatime and Books Reviews
5 stars "Vonda Sinclair is a great writer, I am excited to receive each new story and read it as soon as I have it. When I read the stories I become part of the story and experience each moment with the other characters. Her descriptions of her characters reactions to each situation make me feel them. I can see the scenery as though I was there. Neacal and Anna are believable and I felt their pain and terror as they worked to reach the goal of freedom from the bonds of their past and present trials. She is a genuine story teller and holds you under spell till the last page of her books. I fully recommend her books to anyone to read." Susan F.
((Thank you!!))
Torture has driven Neacal MacDonald to the brink of madness.
As the new chief of the MacDonald clan, Neacal will do whatever it takes to honor his late father and to help his clan thrive. But whispers of his madness abound and many in his clan turn traitor, wanting MacDonald of Sleat to lead them instead. Conflict ignites between the bitter rivals when Sleat garners the help of the man who tortured Neacal in the past.
Can one woman's song pull him back and begin to heal his soul?
Everything has been ripped from Anna Douglas except her angelic voice and the will to survive. When she meets Neacal, she recognizes something familiar in him—stark loneliness and pain. His past could be even more tragic and tarnished than hers. No one must learn her true identity or about the brutish man declaring she is his wife, for he will stop at nothing to reclaim her. Though Neacal vowed to never trust a woman again, he cannot resist the secrets in Anna's eyes or her spellbinding song, which threatens to break down the icy walls surrounding his tormented heart.
A fun excerpt:
When she arrived at the
top of the steps in his corridor, Neacal stood waiting, tall and dark, leaning
against the stone wall. His great wolfhound sat by his leg, wagging his tail in
greeting.
Neacal's long, midnight
hair was combed smooth and still damp. His blue eyes glinted with a bit of morose
wickedness. Good heavens, he was breathtakingly handsome in the light of early
morn. Surely he must have been a devastating rogue before his capture, one who
stole the hearts of all the lasses from many miles around. He had a profound
seductive air about him, though now 'twas overshadowed by a cloud of dark
intensity. This made him even more appealing to her.
"A good morn to
you, Anna," Neacal murmured in a husky, intimate voice, for her ears only,
making her imagine things she should not. Things like… waking up beside him.
"Good morn, Neacal."
She curtsied.
His expression
lightened and she thought he might smile—hoped he would. Instead, he turned and
proceeded down a short narrow corridor, an offshoot of the main one, then opened
a small, almost hidden door. "Stay, Dunn," he told his dog, before
squeezing his broad shoulders through the doorway. Once inside, he held out his
hand to her.
She took it, the heat
of his roughened palm making her tingle, and stepped inside the confined dark
space. "Heavens. Is this a closet?"
"Shh," he
hissed softly against her ear, his warm breath teasing her skin and giving her
delightful shivers. Goodness! He really shouldn't do that, for it inspired all
sorts of unladylike urges. Finding herself suddenly short of breath, she
inhaled his luscious, clean male scent combined with that of a spicy soap. Her
thoughts took flight and she no longer cared why they were in this small room.
She only wanted to press her nose against his throat and breathe him in.
He drew her toward a
square opening where light and the murmur of several conversations filtered up.
What was this? Where were they?
Holding her breath, she
eased forward and found herself staring down at the tables of the great hall,
filled with many people eating their first meal of the day.
Of course, this was a
laird's lug, or laird's ear. She had heard of these little eavesdropping
chambers but had never been into one. Neither of the castles she'd lived in had
them. How unnerving to imagine someone spying on her below, without her
knowledge, but 'twas also true that lairds had to be extra careful about
conspiracies and clan politics.
Neacal stood just
behind her, not quite touching, but the presence and heat of him were palpable.
His delicious scent surrounded her, sending her woman's instincts into overload.
"Do you see
them?" he whispered, his warm breath fanning the hair by her ear again.
She shivered as a more
intense heat and awareness washed over her. It took all of her strength not to
turn and melt into him. More than anything, she craved looking into his eyes… or
pressing herself against him, but she had more important things to do. She
forced her attention downward, into the great hall. She scanned the many
clansmen and finally found the co-conspirators sitting at the far end of a
table near the entry, their heads bent together once again.
She pointed at them.
"There," she breathed.
Neacal moved his head
forward, beside hers, to peer through the opening. With his tall height, he loomed
over her in the cramped space.
"The ones sitting
at the end of that table," she whispered. "It appears they are plotting
even now. The chubby, ginger-haired one has on a green doublet and the slim, brown-headed
man is wearing a blue doublet." She glanced aside at him.
Neacal narrowed his
eyes, observing the men with a sharp glare. "Roy and Parlan."
She was so close to
Neacal she heard his teeth grate together. Of a certainty, she would never want
to make an enemy of Neacal MacDonald. He would be a deadly foe. But with more
than one—perhaps several—in his clan against him, his life could be in danger.
Highlander Unbroken is available at:
