Old Photograph Achnacarry Castle Scotland


Old Photograph Achnacarry Castle located twelve miles North East of Fort William, Scotland. Achnacarry Castle is the ancestral home of the Chiefs of Clan Cameron. Sir Ewen Cameron built the castle in around 1655 in a strategic position on the isthmus between Loch Lochy and Loch Arkaig. With Sir Ewen's death in the early 18th century his son John Cameron became Clan Chief, soon after which his son, Donald would assume Achnacarry when Lord Lochiel, as his father was known, fled into exile in Flanders after the first Jacobite Uprising. With the Jacobite army's defeat at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746 the clans retreated into the Scottish Highlands, with Donald taking the lead in re-grouping them. After this last attempt at resistance failed, he and his men took to the mountains. On May 28, 1746, Donald watched as men from Bligh's Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Cornwallis and an Independent Company of Munros, commanded by George Munro, 1st of Culcairn, burned Achnacarry to the ground. In 1802 Achnacarry, which had spent the last fifty or so years in ruin, was rebuilt under Donald Cameron, XXII Chief of Clan Cameron as a Scottish baronial style home, though still referred to as Achnacarry Castle. The current building and the surrounding estate gained fame as the Commando Training Depot for the Allied Forces from March 1942 to 1945.



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