J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Stirling and the West Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dun Sgathaich Castle, Skye 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dun Sgathaich Castle, Skye’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Recto:
Dun Sgathaich Castle, Skye 1831
D26576
Turner Bequest CCLXX 71
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘71’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 71’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch has been identified as Dun Sgathaich Castle (also called Dun Scaith and other variations) near Tokavaig at the west of the Sleat peninsula.1 Although most of the castle ruins in Turner’s sketch are no longer extant, the section at the far left still stands (it is the highest part of the remaining ruins at the south), making it possible to identify this as a view from the east. The mountains in the background, which must be the Cuillins, confirm this. For further information and references to other sketches of the castle; see folio 87 verso (D26608).

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

1
David Wallace–Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on the Isle of Skye 1831’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [folio 14].

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dun Sgathaich Castle, Skye 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dun-sgathaich-castle-skye-r1135010, accessed 23 April 2024.