08/23/03

Home

The Front Hall, added 1814 - 15 with the twin towers and breastwork, to form a more convenient level for access to the main public rooms.  The armorial stone panel above the porch (outside) features the arms of Iain Breac (18th Chief, 1664 - 93) and his MacDonald wife, Florence; it was removed from it's original position - above a doorway - in 1790.  The oak staircase was added in 1840 - 50, replacing an old stone stair connecting the 1748 and 1814 entrances with the first floor.  The "Moorish" ironwork is mostly early 19th Century, collected by Olive Temple (Dame Flora MacLeod's younger sister) in Granada.  The Bull's Head in the archway, with the motto "Hold Fast" (ancient slogan of the Clan) was bequeathed to the 28th Chief in the 1950s.

The First Floor Passage contains a collection of military relics;  family swords, some of which can be seen in the portraits;  native rifles and weapons brought from India by the General (23rd Chief), of these the most spectacular being the great ceremonial lance of Tippoo Sahib, Sultan of Mysore.  This was a gift from the Sultan.

Here also can be seen a number of Jacobite relics, possessions of Flora MacDonald, heroine of the Prince's escape from Government troops in the aftermath of Culloden.  They were presented by her daughter, who married Alexander MacLeod of Glendale (an illegitimate son of the 22nd Chief).  Flora lived at Dunvegan for a time, with her daughter and son-in-law, after her return from America.

The "Business Room". In Dame Flora's time, it was her study and in it, many visiting MacLeods recall the warmth of her welcome.  The Fairy Tower (c. 1500) has four floors of one small room each, the upper three of which are still connected by the little circular stair visible to the left of the entrance to this room.  It was here that Dr. Johnson and James Boswell were entertained by Mrs MacLeod and her daughters with, as Boswell wrote:  "...a rich carpet, a good table, the tea in civilized order.  Mr Johnson became quite joyous ".  He also records that this was the only room in the Castle where the chimney did not smoke.  In the "Fairy Room" above, Dr Johnson slept in 1773 and Sir Walter Scott in 1814;  both, as they write, peacefully, lulled by the burn below the window.

The Dining Room (1790 and 1840 - 50) form the largest suite of rooms in the Castle and are still in use when the family are at home.  Ancestral portraits cover 300 years of family history.  The massive oak sideboard bears the date "1603" and is associated with Sir Rory Mor (15th Chief).

It was during this period that the island Chiefs began to feel the real authority of the national government, recently moved to London.  Sir Rory's knighthood, which he received from King James at Greenwich in 1613, was undoubtedly given "with strings attached", in exchange for his good behaviour.  From this time, the Castle began to take on the character more of a gracious mansion house than of a fortress.

The Dunvegan Cup, one of the Castle's great treasures, has it's story inscribed in Latin on it's silver rim.  It is an Irish "belted" Mether, given to Sir Rory Mor by the O'Neills of Ulster as a token of thanks for is support of their cause against England (1596).

The Inscription begins:  "Katherine, daughter of King Neill, wife of MacGuire Prince of Fermanagh had me made in the year of God 1493".  The wooden drinking cup inside it's silver sheath is estimated to some 500 years older and is thought by the O'Neill family to have been the property of their ancestor, Niall Glundubh, High King of Ireland (916 - 919).  The Library contains many fine old books of historical and family interest.  The most remarkable in undoubtedly The Dunvegan Armorial, compiled 1582 - 84, apparently from the Breton Armorial;  it was once the property of William Shaw, master of Works to King James VI.

The Drawing Room (1360 and 1790) has all the style and elegance of the period of it's creation, in the time of the General (23rd Chief), who had the ancient building re-roofed and the narrow slit - windows opened out.

Once again, as in Sir Rory's day, the Castle underwent a thorough overhaul.  The General was determined to create, for his pretty young wife, Sarah, fresh from the soft life of colonial India, a place to live in comfort in this cold (and no doubt rather frightening) highland fastness.

Centuries earlier, this was the Great Hall of Dunvegan, living quarters for the Chief and his household, the walls of rough stone and beamed roof perhaps a whole storey higher than now.  The battlements above were reached by stairs in the thickness of the walls, 9' on the landward side and 4'6" to seaward.

On the walls between the seaward facing windows hangs the Fairy Flag, it's frail fabric now protected by glass from those who in the past sought to acquire for themselves a little of it's magic, by cutting pieces from it.  It is an awesome thought that this time-worn relic may predate the Keep by as much as 1,000 years!

Rory Mor's Horn  is the ancestral drinking vessel of the Clan.  Tradition decrees that the Chief's heir, at his coming of age, must take a full horn of claret and drain it at one Draught; "without setting down or falling down".  As it holds a good bottle and a half, this is no mean proof of manhood!  (The present Chief performed this feat successfully in 1965; time:  1 minute 57 seconds)

The Grand Piano  a Bosendorfer of 1910, is played by Mrs MacLeod of MacLeod, Melita Kolin, a professional pianist.  A Chamber Music Festival is now an annual summer event at the Castle.

The Dungeon.  Within six feet of so civilized a room as the Drawing Room, the presence of a complete guardhouse and pit dungeon, in original condition, comes as quite a surprise.  The pit is 13 feet deep, the last four feet being cut from the living rock;  prisoners were lowered, or thrown, through the trap in the guardhouse and left to die.  There was no other access.  When it ceased to have relevance as a prison, the pit was half filled with rubble and floored level with a small postern door in the jamb of the Keep.  However, the pit was cleaned out again in the present century.

The North Room (1840 - 1850) has one of the best views in the Castle.  It was designed as a billiard room, but now contains hunting trophies, mostly collected by Norman Magnus (26th Chief);  a record tusk weighing 116 lbs was given him by the elephant hunter, Arthur Neumann.

The Old Kitchen (c. 1360) shows something of the construction of the Keep.  The barrel vault runs the length of the building;  the service stair is built in the thickness of the north wall.  Displayed here are the oldest relics, including an incised Pictish Symbol Stone (found nearby);  a carved stone, possibly representing Sir Rory Mor's wife, Isabel MacDonald of Glengarry (17th century, probably a fireplace mantle support), a rotary quern (a hand mill for grinding corn) and a knocking-stone (a mortar for husking grain);  the Great Sword ("Claymore") of William "a claidheamh fhada" (Long Sword), the 7th Chief, who fell in a sea battle at Bloody Bay (Mull) in 1480.  Two-handed swords were later used as symbols of justice, as when the Chief convened his Baronial Court, often no doubt, at Dunvegan.

The St Kilda Relics...  The St Kilda group of islands, 40 miles into the open Atlantic beyond the Outer Isles, was, for at least four centuries, the property of the MacLeods.  It was sold in the 1930s, after the islanders had been evacuated.  The relics preserved at Dunvegan explain a little of the extraordinary way of life of it's people.

Pipers and Poets...  A room in the Castle has been set aside for a display of some of the arts with which the Chiefs and Clan have been associated for generations.  The MacCrimmons of Boreaig (for centuries pipers to the Chiefs of MacLeod) were one of the principal  sources of inspiration in the development of bagpipe music throughout the Highlands.  Here can be seen pipes that belonged to the last MacCrimmons, examples of "Ceol Mor" and some of the retrieved works of the great Mairi nighean Alasdair ruaraidh (Mary MacLeod of Rodel, Harris), first and foremost of the modern Gaelic poets (she died c. 1710);  also, poetry of Ruaraidth Dall Morrison (Blind Rory), harper-bard of Iain Breac (18th Chief).  The last MacCrimmon piper to a Chief died in 1822, but the Chief continued  to employ a piper in the 19th century and found work for Donald MacLeod, a local Gaelic poet whose verses are also in view.  Today, members of the MacCrimmon family in Canada still keep in touch with the present Chief and the Silver Chanter recital of Ceol Mor is an annual event at the Castle.

Top