One of the things I love most about living on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands is exploring all its hidden and sometimes secret nooks and crannies. It often amazes me how many Scots actually know more about Meditteranean countries than they know about the riches of their own homeland. I’ve just returned from [...]

It was with a true sense of amazement that I realised this morning that we have just reached something of a landmark. The Eilean Donan Blog is now exactly one year old today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!! I use the words “we” and “us” in the above paragraph quite deliberately, as without the continued [...]

So yesterday we started the first step in the process of opening up the Great Well area. Skye Rope Access Ltd came along to start clearing the ancient ivy from the well walls in order that we can assess the level of re-pointing work that’s going to be required to safeguard and conserve this beautiful [...]

As many of you will already know, over the next few years, I’m keen to open up previously closed areas of the castle for visitors to explore, so I though I’d give you a wee update on one of our current projects. The well area in the castle is one of the few areas that [...]

The Eilean Donan Blog has now been running for about 10 months, and in that time has received over 25,000 views which truly amazes me considering it was purely started as something of an experiment! My initial plan was to run it for just a year to see what kind of response it received, and [...]

At this time of year we always welcome lots of families and people enjoying the Easter holidays. We also act as something of a Tourist Information Centre for the area too, and as such, I thought I’d give anyone who’s heading this way at the end of the month, a little bit of a heads-up [...]

It’s a well known fact that we Scots possess distinctly (some might say, unnaturally) long memories, and that loyalties, and for that matter, emneties can frequently last for generations if not centuries. This is particularly true when it comes to issues surrounding our Clan system, even today. Clan MacRae has held a number of allegiencies [...]

Regular readers of the Eilean Donan Facebook page will know that I’m a vocal supporter of the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music (NCETM) based in nearby Plockton. What is less well known, perhaps because of their quiet modesty, is how strongly the Trustees of Eilean Donan feel about the castle’s position in the [...]

Every five years, the Clan MacRae holds an International Clan Gathering at Eilean Donan to celebrate its history, its ancestors and its heritage. Hundreds of MacRaes gather from all over the world to take part in the celebrations, and the last one was held during Scotland’s Year of Homecoming in 2009. The event itself normally [...]

Every so often, I stumble across something completely and totally unexpected at Eilean Donan and today I have a real wee gem of a find to share with you all! An exclusive preview that you can have a look at before ANYONE else! Tucked away in the back of a dusty drawer in the castle [...]

I’ve frequently been asked to provide a little more historical detail on Eilean Donan here on the blog, and whilst I appreciate that some of you may not have a huge amount of interest in the multitude of facts and dates that encompass the castle, I do have to try and provide a little more [...]

As of today, the Visitor Centre is officially open for the 2011 season so it’s clearly time for me to get back into the blogging habit after a rather strange winter! We woke up to a rather surprising fall of  snow this morning, so winter has clearly decided to drag it’s heals as usual.  Our [...]

So I need some help and some input please. With nearly 2000 fans on the Facebook page and around 15,000 hits so far on the blog, I’d like to give you the opportunity to help shape a decision I have to take. Modern technology is advancing at a rapid rate of knots and in this [...]

Happy New Year to you all, and I hope you all had a truly wonderful festive season. Well I’m back in the Eilean Donan saddle after a bit of a lay-off due to my heart attack on the 20th of November, and am just starting to feel a bit more like my old self and [...]

I feel as though I’ve been neglecting both the Facebook page and the Eilean Donan Blog lately, although in my defence, things have been a little out of my control……. At 11.00am on Saturday 20th of November, I had a rather inconvenient and very unexpected heart attack, which came as something of a shock, and [...]