We were now on the Isle of Skye for a week and had settled in to our accommodation.
I have to credit my wife Kathryn for the idea to visit Dunvegan castle. This wasn’t on our original list of places to visit but she suggested we check it out.
Thanks to a fellow photography club member’s wife suggesting we buy Gardener’s World Magazine which had a 2 for 1 ticket offer for a whole year, we were able to visit the castle and it’s gardens for half price.
Given that the entrance fee is a whopping £14 per person, this was well worth the effort. Having said that, the fee is to visit the castle and the gardens. It is possible to buy a ticket just for the gardens.
The castle is an impressive sight as my initial shot below shows.
The tour inside was really interesting which shouldn’t be a surprise when the website explains that Dunvegan is one of the greatest Hebridean castles and the only Highland fortress to have been continuously occupied by the same family for 800 years, the MacLeod clan.
The rooms were full of interesting historical paintings, furniture and trinkets. The drawing room is shown below.
There were some examples of sporrans made from otters.
It was particularly eerie to take a peek into the pit dungeon. A brick stone room draws you in where you can peek downwards to see a mannequin imitating a prisoner.
Those despatched to this cell were left to starve to death. To maximise the suffering of those sent there, the location was deliberately close to the kitchen so that starving prisoners could smell the food!
On the lower floor, another mannequin dressed as a maid was visible carrying a tray of food.
We left the castle and walked round the gardens, which were lovely. Lots of great flowers, and a waterfall which had to be photographed.
I enjoyed messing about trying different settings to see if I could blur the motion of the water handheld.
You can walk down the road to gain a view of the castle from Loch Dunvegan, from where I grabbed the following shot quickly as we were being advised that the grounds would soon close.
A quick trip through the final garden, and some shots of the tulips and we were done, just before we got chucked out!
Overall, this was an excellent place to visit, and we could’ve easily spent a whole day here. The gardens reminded us of Bodnant in Wales.
As we left this location, we were now heading to Neist Point, a target destination which we hadn’t been able to fit in on our last trip to Skye back in 2019.
Onwards and upwards…