The trees hid the castle from view, but I knew it was down this path. My kids ran ahead, soon lost from view. I just hoped the path didn’t go too close to shore, I didn’t want them to–
“What’s a shipwreck doing here?”
I stopped in the middle of the trail at the parting of trees. Soon enough, I pulled my eyes away from the graffitied vessel to look up. Castle Maol, built by a Norwegian princess nicknamed Saucy Mary, wife of a MacKinnon chief, lay on the banks. I’d heard the story about Mary from my cousin at dinner the night before, and had indeed seen a business named the Saucy Mary in the little town just outside the castle’s borders. I was home.
I raced to catch up with the others.
Though the castle was in ruins now, the stories about it still lived. Mary had built a massive chain to stretch across the bay to tax ships passing through–all of them except those from Norway, of course. When Mary died, she was buried where winds from her homeland could pass over her resting place.
Mary could be my ancestor. Any MacKinnon could be.
My grandmother’s grandparents immigrated from Scotland to Canada before she herself came to the United States. Grandma Jean’s ancestors are from the beautiful, windswept Isle of Skye, right at the southern tip where Castel Maol sits.
John MacKinnon. Donald MacKinnon. Another Mary, Mary Bethune. My ancestors could have stood right where I was, looking at the castle from across the inlet.
I scaled the hill quickly with my family to see what was left of our ancient stronghold built 500 years ago. It once would have been a squat, square with short towers on the corners. The main level held a great room and a suite of rooms on the floor above. The basement level once contained a kitchen and storage, still unexcavated.
The sky was grey. My children shouted as they clambered over rocks. I was surrounded by history. It was the perfect day to find inspiration for my next book.
Here are a few more castles I visited on my recent trip to Scotland. If you want to read more about my research process for my upcoming book, click here.
