Scotland January/February 2024 - Sample Issue

ANCESTRY • TRAVEL • CLANS • HISTORY

The world’s leading Scottish-interest magazine

Castles & clans

WIN WIN

escape aanstay into a remote a fairytale Scottish castle Island

Ancestral seats and Highland traditions

Up yer kilt

CITY TOURS

How do you wear yours?

Expert guides in Edinburgh & Glasgow

JACOBITE GOLD An unsolved Scottish mystery ISSUE 132 Jan/Feb 2024 £4.95

HIDDEN SCOTLAND Take the road less travelled

Rise of the Stewarts Birth of a royal dynasty

News & events

CLAN COURIER As a St Andrews landmark closes, a new Walter Scott-inspired viewpoint opens

[TOURISM]

Funding has been secured to create a new viewpoint in the very place where Scottish tourism was born.

Through his Lady of the Lake poem, Sir Walter Scott firelit an interest in Scotland, with crowds of people flocking to The Trossachs and Loch Katrine to see for themselves the landscapes he so eloquently described.

Now a three-storey scenic tower,

commissioned by The Steamship Sir Walter Scott Trust, will allow visitors to enjoy the majesty of the area better.

Opening in spring 2024, the tower will be known as Roderick Dhu Watchtower due to the site’s earlier associations with Rob Roy MacGregor – apparently clansmen used it as a lookout to warn Rob Roy about approaching redcoats. lochlomond-trossachs.org

© CAROL HAWTHORNE/ALAMY

SCOTT’S VIEW

ancestry

| Clan Special

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DUNROBIN CASTLE Golspie, Dornoch

Sutherland, Gordon

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© DUNROBIN CASTLE/INSTAGRAM/DUNROBIN CASTLE/ CELTUS@ENGLISH WIKIPEDIA

unrobin is the furthest north of Scotland’s great castles, offering great views over the Moray Firth. With its French-inspired design by Sir Charles Barry – also responsible for London’s Houses of Parliament – dating from 1835-1850, it’s also the embodiment of a fairytale castle.

The interiors of Dunrobin’s 189 rooms were restored after a fire in 1915, courtesy of Scottish architect, Sir Robert Lorimer. Some of the original building can be seen in the interior courtyard.

The Sutherlands, later earls then dukes, have been at Dunrobin Castle since the 14th century, with the land in the hands of Hugh de Moravia, grandson of the Flemish noble Freskin, before 1211. The Earldom of Sutherland was created for Hugh’s son, William, around 1230.

The name, Dunrobin, is said to come from Robert Sutherland, the 6th Earl of Sutherland, who died in 1444.

Briefly in the hands of the Gordon Earls of Huntly, in 1518 the castle was taken by the legitimate heir to the Sutherland Earldom, Alexander Sutherland. However, the Gordons subsequently retook it and put Alexander’s head on a spear on top of the castle tower. They also killed his son, John, when he made an attempt on Dunrobin in 1550.

During the 1745 Jacobite Rising, the 17th Earl, who had changed his surname from Gordon to Sutherland, supported the Hanoverians and had to escape through the back door when Charles Edward Stuart’s forces stormed Dunrobin. His granddaughter, Elizabeth, married the politician George Leveson-Gower, later 1st Duke of Sutherland, who altered and extended Dunrobin from 1785, and the pair are controversial figures due to the eviction of thousands of tenants on their land during the Highland Clearances. dunrobincastle.co.uk

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The secret

peninsula Kilchoan is the most westerly village in mainland Britain, which makes discovering it all the more special Words by SALLY COFFEY

THIS IMAGE: Sitting dramatically on its rocky outcrop, Mingary Castle’s imposing walls are more than 700 years old

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Hidden Scotland | travel

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arrow, rocky roads that seem to wend and wind at will, with ditches either side, can be daunting to the uninitiated.

The first time I visited Ardnamurchan, one of Scotland’s most remote peninsulas – a finger of land poking out of the west coast between Moidart and Morvern – I arrived via the Corran Ferry. On that visit, it was autumn, the nights were drawing in and navigating the B8007 road as it skirted Loch Sunart for an hour or more to reach our refuge, was challenging to say the least.

This time, the Corran Ferry is closed so we’ve had to come the long way round via Loch Eil from Fort William, which has put a fair amount of time onto our journey.

Thankfully, this time it’s May, and the day stretches out like a long yawn as we make our way along the banks of Sunart with no fear that we will run out of daylight. And this time, my husband is driving, so all I need to do is sit back and breathe in the views.

Native trees line our path, as we weave our way, with the vivid blue of the loch mirroring the cloudless sky above.

Against this canvas, the green hills seem ludicrously lush, with the sheep and their lambs like polka dots on the grass in the distance.

The single-track road follows the water’s edge for much of the route, until it diverts inland to go round Ardnamurchan’s highest hill of Ben Hiant.

Driving in Ardnamurchan you get the feeling that you’re entering uncharted territory and in a sense you are. Until 1900 it was unconnected to the main road network and the only way in or out was by sea. Today, despite being a reasonable detour from the main A830 route between Glenfinnan and Mallaig (where you can catch the ferry to Skye), it remains an unknown landscape for most.

And so, it seems almost implausible that after a couple of hours of driving this road with barely another sign of life other than the cotton-wool sheep, that there should be one of Scotland’s – indeed one of Britain’s – most spectacular restaurants with rooms: Mingary Castle.

Just shy of the quiet village of Kilchoan, at the fingertip of Ardnamurchan, this castle was once fought over by the MacDougalls, Maclains, the McCains, and the MacDonalds.

It was a sought-after strategic stronghold, largely due to its inaccessibility, and indeed the castle is so hidden that even

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travel

| Isle of Lewis

Words by MARK ROWE

Beyond Callanish Our writer travels the B8011, an unheralded road that winds its way through stunning island scenery to Uig, a hidden corner of the Isle of Lewis

64 Scotland

Isle of Lewis | travel

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Cruises & Tours | travel

GATEWAY TO SCOTLAND Join one of these handpicked tours that will guide you round our beautiful cities or transport you from the cultural hubs to the wilds of rural Scotland…

Scotland’s cities

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