Capture of Eilean Donan Castle The Capture of Eilean Donan Castle was an land - based naval engagement that took place in 1719 during the Jacobite Rising of that year , and the War of the Quadruple Alliance . A British naval reconnaissance force of three ships attacked the castle of Eilean Donan on the west coast of Scotland , which was held by Spanish troops . After a naval bombardment , the British government forces stormed the castle , and the defenders surrendered . The castle was subsequently destroyed with gunpowder . Background . The Spanish had sent troops after Cardinal Giulio Alberoni set up the " Alberoni Plan " a decision to support the Jacobite claims and its Highland allies both to depose George I and enthrone James Stuart . The Spanish landed over 300 marines with various Jacobite commanders such as George Keith and the tenth Earl Marischal . Intending to spread the rising Spanish forces had established a garrison in Eilean Donan Castle , one of Lord Seaforth ' s residences . At the beginning of May , the Royal Navy sent five ships to the area for reconnaissance : two patrolling off Skye and three around Lochalsh , adjacent to Loch Duich . Early in the morning on Sunday 10 May , these latter three , the fifty gun HMS " Worcester " , the forty four gun HMS " Enterprise " , the twenty gun HMS " Flamborough " , anchored off Eilean Donan on the north side of Loch Duich . Assault & destruction . Their first move was to send a boat ashore under a flag of truce to negotiate , but when the Spanish soldiers in the castle fired at the boat , it was recalled and all three ships opened fire on the castle for an hour or more . They then shifted anchorage and waited , the wind blowing a fresh gale . The next morning ( 11 May ) , acting on intelligence from a Spanish deserter , the commanding officer , Captain Chester Boyle of the " Worcester " , sent the " Enterprise " up the loch to capture a house being used to store gunpowder but , according to the naval logs , the rebels on the shore set fire to the house as the ship approached . Meanwhile , the other two ships continued to bombard the castle at intervals while they prepared a landing party . In the evening , under the cover of an intense cannonade , the ships ' boats went ashore surrounding the castle on all sides and after scaling the walls captured the place against little resistance . The government forces had captured " an Irishman , a captain , a Spanish lieutenant , a sergeant , one Scots rebel and thirty nine Spanish soldiers , 343 barrels of powder and 52 barrels of musquet shot " . The Government troops then " burnt several barns etc where they had a quantity of corn for the use of their camp " . The naval force spent the next two days demolishing the castle ( it took twenty seven barrels of gunpowder ) . The Spanish prisoners were put on board " Flamborough " and taken away to Leith and then Edinburgh . The rising ended with the defeat of the Jacobites ( poorly provisioned and armed ) with the remaining Spanish troops on 10 June at the Battle of Glen Shiel . Eilean Donan would stand in ruins for over 200 years until 1919 when it was rebuilt , restored and finished in 1932 by John MacRae - Gilstrap .