Eilean Donan Castle, ancestral home of the MacKenzie clan, Scotland

Eilean Donan Castle
Ancestral home of the MacKenzie clan
Scotland

Eilean Donan, the clan castle of the MacKenzies, sits at the meeting point of Loch Long, Loch Duich and Loch Alsh. It's origin is shrouded in the mists of time (okay, about 600 C.E.). 

The first fortified stronghold was established in the reign of Alexander II (1214-1250). In 1263 Alexander III gave the castle to Colin Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Desmond and Kildare (later to become MacKenzies) as a reward for services in the Battle of Largs. The famous battle culminated in the defeat of the Norwegian King, Haco. Following Haco's death shortly after, his successor, Magnus, ceded all the Western Isles to Scotland.

It is believed that, in the early part of the fourteenth century, Robert the Bruce, out of favour with many of the clan chiefs as well as being hunted by the English, was given refuge in Eilean Donan Castle by John MacKenzie, Second of Kintail. 

See http://www.sannabay.co.uk/castle. See also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilean_Donan and http://www.eileandonancastle.com