MacKinnon Stronghold

[Ancienne Alliance]

Here is a picture of Castle Moil in Sky, a stronghold of the MacKinnon.

It was the castle of the Norse princess "Saucy Mary", married to a MacKinnon.

Legend goes a huge chain extended from the isle to the main land to stop the viking ships.

If anyone have more details , I would be most grateful.


Best,

Robert

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

According to MacGibbon & Ross in volume III of their magnum opus The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland (from the twelfth to the eighteenth century): "CASTLE MAOIL (Skye, Inverness-shire) A strong keep of the Macdonalds, built on a detached mass of rock near Kyle Akin, and commanding the narrow strait between the mainland and Skye. It was originally 30 feet 6 inches long by 17 feet wide internally, with walls 9 feet in thickness, but only those at the north-east and south-west angles remain. The site is surrounded on three sides by the sea, and on the fourth is cut off from a neck of land which rises about 20 feet above the tide. The walls are built close to the edge of the rock, and the portions remaining are still of some height (35 to 40 feet), and contain windows about 2 feet square, with wide square receses internally arched over. There are no signs of vaulting or rests for beams, but the tower has been at least three stories in height. From its style it probably belongs to the fifteenth century."

MacGibbon & Ross published their five volume survey between 1887-1892 and it remains, to this day, unsurpassed as a record of early Scottish domestic architecture.

[Mac Daibhidh]

I watched a bbs/pbs documentary the other night... they actually featured this castle and mentioned briefly about Saucy Mary and how she had her subjects tie together a mass of fishing boats in order to blockade marauders.

The more interesting bit of info was that she got her nickname Saucy Mary due to flashing her breasts from the tower at passerbys. It is apprently now a tradition for all visitors to follow suit.

My plan for retirement is curator of this facility!


Edit:
Found the show. It was "Globe Trekker" on PBS.
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index...entPage=search