Urquhart Castle | Historic Scotland скачать в хорошем качестве

Urquhart Castle | Historic Scotland

Urquhart Castle overlooks Loch Ness from the rocky promontory that it dominates and upon which some famous names have set foot. St Columba may have visited around AD 580. Adomnan, his biographer, tells of the saint’s encounter with a monster in the loch. Urquhart has a lively history. It was one of the great castles taken by the English when Edward I invaded in 1296. The Lords of the Isles then seized the castle repeatedly in the later Middle Ages, in an effort to expand their territory into the north-east. In the 1500s, Clan Grant was given the castle and charged with its repair and with bringing it back into use. Urquhart Castle was garrisoned for the last time in 1689, following the exile of the Catholic King James VII, and his replacement by the Protestant monarchs William II and Mary II. In 1692, the towering gatehouse was deliberately blown up so that the castle could never again be a military stronghold.