Eilean Donan sits on a small tidal island at the meeting of Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, joined to the shore near Dornie by an arched stone footbridge. A castle stood here from the 13th century and became a stronghold of the Mackenzies and their allies the MacRaes. In 1719 Spanish troops supporting a Jacobite rising occupied it; three Royal Navy frigates bombarded it, landed a party, captured the garrison, and the castle was blown up with gunpowder.
For two centuries it lay in ruins. Between 1919 and 1932 Lt Col John MacRae-Gilstrap rebuilt it — following the old ground plan, but with plenty of romantic licence — and it opened to the public in 1955. The result is a castle that looks exactly as a Highland castle should, which is why it appears on shortbread tins, whisky labels and in a long list of films.