Photos of the enigmatic picturesque and much photographed Eilean Donan Castle, The Gateway To Western Isles.
Eilean Donan Castle Photos
These photos of Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland are part of my exploration into Stone objects and buildings that link us to our ancestors. From prehistoric petroglyphs to great historic sculptures and buildings, our ancestors chose stone to carry their messages through time.
See More Photo From The Towering Delusions Series
Towering Delusions
“Towering Delusions” explores mans aspirations cast in great stone buildings and fortifications of Europe, North Africa and the Near East. The series of photos explores the great efforts of ambitious people who built stone testaments to their power and wealth. Unfortunately for them time has revealed their folly as many sacrificed so much build these buildings are now forgotten. Their buildings that defined their power and statues are now just empty testaments to their pointless efforts and to the transient nature of power and wealth. This should be a sober warning today to the 5% of humanity who hoard the same wealth as the other 95% of people on this planet.
Landscape Photography
During my long photography career I have rarely ever made landscape photos seriously so it has been an interesting learning curve. For this series of photos I decided to make landscapes that are devoid of humans but not devoid of birds and animals. I wanted a sense of a world world without man in which animals would rule again. The photos are not meant to be pessimistic but are meant to celebrate the wonderful world we inhabit and the past follies of the elites. We have to stop destroying our planet it so that the 5% can increase their wealth and power and carry on building Towering Delusions.
I hope you enjoy the photos in this ongoing project. See All of the black & white Towering Delusions Art Photo Series.
About Eilean Donan Castle
As you travel north along the western Scottish coast road, Eilean Donan Castle is visible on a small rocky offshore Island heralding the western Isles of Scotland that lay beyond. It is believed that in the 5th century the Celtic saint Donnan of Eigg built a small church on the Island before he was martyred in 617. Eilean Donan is named after him the islands name meaning Island of Donnan.
One of the earliest record of a fortification at Eilean Donan is from the 1200’s during the reign of King Alexander II when a curtain wall was built to enclose the island. During this era Eilean Donan was at the boundry of the Norse-Celtic Lordship of the Isles and the Earldom of Ross so the fortification was meant to deter Norse incursions.
Legend has it that Alexander II asked chief of the Mathesons to build a castle on Eilean Donan and by the 14th century the island had a typical Scottish Tower House defending it. In the 16th century the outer curtain walls were demolished and a courtyard developed with awall round it and the Tower house was extended. During its lifetime Eilean Donan Castle has seen plenty of action as waring Clans endlessly struggled to gain power of the Highlands and Isles.
In the 1500’s and 1600’s the castle was taken and retaken in power struggles eventually
leading the the Jacobite uprising in 1715 when Eilean Donan Castle was taken by George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal with 300 Spainish soldiers who expected the support of a Highland uprising and a Spanish Fleet neither of which arrived. On the morning of Sunday 10 May 1719 HMS Worcester, HMS Flamborough and HMS Enterprise anchored off Eilean Donan and sent a boat ashore under a flag of truce to negotiate its surrender.
When the Spanish solders fired on the boat the Naval boats opened fire on the Castle and the 39 Spanish soldiers inside surrendered. Naval forces the used 27 barrels of gun powder to destroy the castle and so it remained as a ruin for 200 years until the castle was rebuilt by Lt. Col. John MacRae-Gilstrap between 1919 and 1932.
Eilean Donan Castle is the most photographed Scottish Tower Hose castle and is one of the most picturesque, both architecturally and in its setting at the confluence fo Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh.
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