Eilean Donan painting
This is painting I have made to illustrate the story of the destruction of Eilean Donan.
During the years of 1688 to 1746 there were a number of Jacobite uprisings, rebellions and battles fought throughout Britain. The aim was to return the Stuart blood line to the British throne. The two largest conflicts were in 1715 and 1745. The 1745 ended with Culloden in 1746 which put an end to the cause.
The Battle of Glen Shiel.
This battle came about on the 10 June 1719. Due to external politics the Jacobites had gained a new ally in Spain. George Keith, the 10th Earl Marishal of Scotland, who was forced to flee after the 1715 uprising and ended as Jacobite ambassador to Spain had hatched a plan where he would land in Scotland with 300 Spanish marines to raise the clans and draw the British forces north. Meantime an armada of some 27 ships and 7,000 men were dispatched to land in England.
Unfortunately the armada failed to arrive and although Keith landed on the 13 April 1719 near Eilean Donan at Lochalsh, he didn't get the Clan support that he had hoped for. After more than a month of trying to raise support they decided to start things off with capturing Inverness. Altogether there was around 200 of the Spanish together with some Atholl men, Mackenzies, MacRaes, Lochiel and the Camerons, and Rob Roy MacGregor with some of the MacGregor clan in total about 1,000 men under the leadership of the Earl of Seaforth.
On the 5th June a force of about the same size but much better equipped seasoned British troops including contingents from the Clan Fraser, Clan Ross, Clan Sutherland, Clan Munro and Clan Mackay had left Inverness to stop them.
The two sides met on the 10th in the narrow gorge of Glen Shiel.The Jacobites after losing around 100 men, decided it was better to live and fight another day and melted into the mists.
The Capture and destruction.
Eilean Donan was originally built in 1220 by King Alexander 3rd for defence against the Danes. Through the years the castle was a main Mackenzie strong-hold and one time clan seat.
At the beginning of May 1719, government sources had heard of a landing and sent a naval squadron to the area to investigate. The castle at this time was manned by a Scotsman, an Irishman and 39 Spanish soldiers left behind from the main force.
On the 10th May 1719 three British Royal Navy ships entered Loch Duich and anchored near Eilean Donan. The lead ship was the 50 gun Man-o-War HMS Worcester together with the 25 gun frigates HMS Enterprise and HMS Flamborough. They first sent in a small boat with a flag of truce, to negotiate surrender but were met with cannon shot from the castle. The navy then proceeded to bombard the castle which was out-gunned by about 100-2 cannons. The next day the navy captured the Spanish and demolished the rest of the castle.
Eilean Donan lay in ruins for 200 years until purchased by a Colonel Macrae-Gilstrap a descendant of the last MacRae constables of the castle. He spent from 1912 until 1932 reconstructing the castle and building it into what can be seen today.
The painting should be a reasonably accurate reconstruction, the ships were from original drawings, the damage is documented and the landscape is accurate.
