ARMADALE CASTLE GARDENS, WITH THE RUINED CASTLE TO THE LEFT AND THE MOUNTAINS OF MAINLAND SCOTLAND BEYOND

This week I would like to show you some images taken from a trip Fran and I took to the Southern end of the Isle of Skye in early May. The gardens at Armadale Castle on the Sleat Peninsula offer an environment that differs in many ways from the rest of Skye. The forty acres of gardens stand in contrast with the wilder, almost wilderness nature of most of the island. Yet since this is Scotland, there is more to this garden than meets the eye.

                                                                  MILES OF WALKING PATHS WIND THROUGH GARDEN RUINS AND SURROUNDING WOODLAND

The village of Armadale, at the Southern end of the isle, is about as far away from our cottage as you can get on the island. In fact the ferry from the mainland that preceded the only bridge to the island lands at Armadale. The trip was almost an hour through a lot of the most forbidding scenery on Skye. The route becomes very familiar since there are only half a dozen main roads across the island. You drive through the Cullins, a mountain range that constitutes a wilderness at the center of Skye, as well as miles of shoreline along major lochs and open ocean that surround Skye.

                                      TERRACES PROVIDE REST AREAS WITHIN THE GARDEN

The gardens are pretty refined as compared to most of Skye. There are different areas and “garden rooms” that could be in many other public gardens around the world. It is only when you get to the center of the garden that you encounter the ruins of a real castle that remind you that you are in Scotland. Armadale Castle was the seat of Clan MacDonald, “The Lords of the Isles”, who fought over the Isle of Skye with Clan Macleod that was based on the Northern end of the Island for hundreds of years. The Clan Donald Lands Trust has maintained the garden, a museum, and 20,000 acres of the surrounding Highland Estate since it bought it from the last absentee Laird in 1955.

                                                       THERE ARE PLENTY OF SPECIMEN TREES OF VARIOUS AGES IN THE GARDEN

Once you see the Castle the story gets even weirder. One half of the castle are the ruins of a centuries-old castle that burned down in a massive fire in 1855. After faltering attempts at reconstruction, the family moved into an adjoining addition in 1925. The Castle then really fell into ruin, with Nature taking over most of the interior, sans roof and windows. A housekeeper ended up living alone in the smaller house for over twenty years while several generations of owners lived on other estates in Scotland.

 

                                                                  THE FOREST WITHIN THE CASTLE RUINS

What remains are the stone ruins of a castle, along with the closed house. The castle ruins are inaccessible due to severe structural issues, but provide a very interesting contrast with the surrounding garden. The wildest areas of forest in the garden are in fact within the old castle ruins, which have been barely stabilized. Nearby areas of the garden are spotted with signs warning visitors to keep very clear of the ruins, whose missing windows reveal the forest growing inside.

                                                                  A VIEW OF WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE MAIN HALL, NOW REVERTED TO NATURE.

                                                                  THE UPPER FLOORS AND ROOF ARE ALSO HISTORY

                                                                 SOME SEGMENTS OF THE ROOF SOMEHOW STILL STAND

                                                                  AN ARTIFACT OF CLAN MACDONALD FROM THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

The garden also includes a beautiful “Museum of the Isles" whose exhibits tell the story of Skye, with an emphasis on the Clan Donald. A few weeks later we toured Dunvegan Castle in the North of the island, which tells the contrasting history of Clan MacLeod.  It’s almost as if the fighting has only reached an intermission.

                A PANORAMIC VIEW OF MAINLAND SCOTLAND ACROSS THE OCEAN FROM ARMADALE

The gardens are certainly worth the trip. Their surroundings include miles of shoreline, with views across the ocean to Mainland Scotland and even more mountains. I hope you have enjoyed these images of this corner of Skye.