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Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The original Donan was a 7th-century saint and martyr, and there's been some kind of settlement here since ancient times. The main incarnation of the castle was from the 13th century, a redoubt of Clan Mackenzie, and was much bashed-about but survived until the 18th. After the 1715 Jacobite rebellion failed a further uprising was attempted in 1719 but never got started, but some Spanish troops and other rebels holed up in the castle. Three navy ships arrived to negotiate their surrender, but the landing boat was fired upon while under flag of truce. Big mistake: when the ships departed three days later, the castle was rubble and the surviving rebels were in shackles below deck. It remained ruined until the 20th century when it was restored as an "show" castle, and joined to the mainland by the stone bridge. It opened to the public in 1955 and has been a popular film-location ever since.
Eilean Donan is a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs in the western Highlands of Scotland, about one kilometre from the village of Dornie. It is connected to the mainland by a footbridge that was installed early in the 20th century and is dominated by a picturesque castle that frequently appears in photographs, film and television. The island's original castle was built in the thirteenth century; it became a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies, the Clan MacRae. In response to the Mackenzies' involvement in the Jacobite rebellions against the newly United Kingdom, Royal Naval ships destroyed the castle in 1719. The present-day castle is Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap's 20th-century reconstruction of the old castle.
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