Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

The MacLeod men approaching the Isle of Eigg was immediately seen by men heading to the graveyard at Kildonnan. The men were carrying a huge column of pitchstone rock, which they had dropped at the sight of the MacLeods. They ran and alerted the other islanders. Soon they realized they did not have enough men to offer resistance. Many of their number, led by their chief Ruaridh MacDonald, were away raiding the lands of the MacLeods.

Therefore, the remaining islanders retreated into St. Francis Cave, Uamh Fhraing. The cave was on the south-west side of the island near the seashore. It was spacious inside but had a tight virginal entrance, concealed by a waterfall, and small enough to be easily overlooked. The entrance resembles that of a fox-earth, that is, a fox’s den.

They felt that the small entrance to the cave offered them protection, as only one man could enter at a time on his hands and knees; if they posted a guard, they could strike down any intruder. A stranger, even when apprised of the existence of such a cave, would find the greatest difficulty in discovering the entrance. This was the traditional hiding place of the Eigg people – it had once given shelter to St. Donnan, so they felt it could protect them from any unchristian assault.

The 365 islanders retreated into the cave except for one old woman, Flora MacKinnon of Hulin. Landing on Eigg, the MacLeod revenge party made a thorough search for three whole days. They did not find a soul save the old woman, Flora MacKinnon, who had said, “This is where I live. I would rather die than hide from a cowardly MacLeod.”¹

The ‘gallant’ MacLeods accosted and held her. They dragged her to St. Columba’s Well. They bound her to a makeshift stool² and lowered her into the well, so she sank beneath the water.³  

“Kin ye tell us noo ye auld, hackit witch!”⁴ Uilleam shouted down the well.

They pulled her up again. She was gasping for breath, having almost drowned. 

“I can’t breathe.⁵ Have mercy!” she begged.

“Hold your breath, you old witch. Tell us where your people are hiding, or we will sink you again into this well and never pull you up again,” barked Malcolm, the Chief of Arms, who had replaced the murdered Angus MacLeod. He was holding the rope of the well from which she was suspended. 

But Flora, although weak and debilitated, replied, “If it comes through my knee, it can’t be helped; but it shall not come through my mouth.” 

Enraged, the MacLeods burned her house and destroyed her crops; yet she still would not tell. She taunted them even more. “I have a home under every rock. I have all the cockles of the Laig Bay to eat if I want.” 

“At least let me choap aff th’ auld witch’s heid ‘n’ throw it doon th’ weel afore we leave faither!”⁶ Uilleam begged his father.

“No, I will not soil my hands with the blood of an old woman. But we will deprive her of all means of living. Command the men to plough the sands of Laig Bay and destroy the razorfish, which is all she has left to eat. Now we have burned and pillaged everything else.”⁷ 

Hearing what had been done, the old lady announced, “I can live, and live well at that, on the dulse of the rock pools and watercress of the well in Hulin.”

In the end, the raiders gave up, persuaded that the islanders had taken refuge on another island. The MacLeods made their way to the Laig beach, where they had moored their boats.

“Humpback is the heir of MacLeod today. As long as the dry straw burns, many a hump and crook there will be in the clan hereafter!” shouted Flora as they made their way to the galleys. Alasdair Crotach and his men had searched every corner of the island but could not find a single inhabitant.⁸Meanwhile, the islanders, who had spent three days in the cave, thought it safe to send a scout outside. It was a cold spring day, and there had been fresh snowfall during the night.

No sooner that the MacLeods rounded the south side of the island and were on their way back to Dunvegan in Skye, had spotted the scout against the snow. They turned around and had no difficulty finding the cave, even though the poor scout had taken the precaution of retracing his steps backwards like a fox. But all his art was in vain as his footprints led to the cave where the McDonalds had taken refuge. 

Crotach then summoned those within and called upon them to deliver up the individuals who had maltreated and killed his men to be disposed of at his pleasure. The MacDonalds, still confident in the strength of their fastness, which no assailant could enter but on hands and knees, refused to surrender their clansmen.

Crotach then ordered a great fire built in front of the cave, with the plan of smoking those inside the cave to death. They set about diverting the waterfall in front of the cave, piling up all the heather and thatching they could find. Just as they were about to set fire to it, Alistair Crotach’s foster son, Stephen, said in extreme agitation, “Father, I know you are a Christian man. Surely, you will not murder innocent women and children who have never harmed anyone? These are not MacDonald soldiers, just innocent women, children and the aged. Is it a manly action to slaughter such innocents?”

Stephen was thinking this looming massacre was all the fault of his brother, the reprobate Uilleam. Of course, he was too much of a coward to utter this, but he thought at least he could divert the tragedy.

Uilleam guessed at his brother’s scheme, and would have nothing of it. He wanted to silence all those mouths that had witnessed his rape of Catriona, and the MacLeod men’s violation and defilement of the MacDonald herd girls. 

So Uilleam countered “Blood wull hae blood!⁹This treacherous clan haes slaughtered oor wummin ‘n’ bairns in th’ bygane; th’ Bible tells us, ‘an eye fur an eye.”¹⁰ 

Alistair Crotach, an intelligent man, sensed some disagreement between his sons and suspected that Stephen’s story of what and why the MacDonalds had slaughtered the MacLeods on Castle Island was perhaps not wholly true. But he didn’t want to sew division between his sons. He remained quiet, regarding his suspicions. However, he was also a religious man. He hesitated, saying, “We will let God decide the fate of these people so the blood is not in our hands. We will wait another six hours. If at the end of this delay, the wind blows from the cave, then God has decided the islanders should be spared.”

 But the wind rose and blew towards land, sealing the islanders’ fate.

“God has decided, but I will not stay here to witness this slaughter of innocents. It will be in your hands, my son, Uilleam.”

The chief sailed away with his foster son, Stephen, leaving Uilleam to set the bonfire alight.

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Uilleam decided not to set the bonfire alight right away. He wanted to get his hands on Ruaridh MacDonald, and challenge him to a manly duel. Although Uilleam was an evil person—a rogue—he had the utmost confidence in his own swordsmanship. Killing a high-ranking MacDonald would add to his renown; whereas suffocating women and children in a cave would not.

So he hatched a plan to lure him out of the cave if he were in there. So he stood at the small entrance of the cave, and shouted:

“Ruaridh MacDonald! Are you there? My father, the Laird of the MacLeods, wants to spare you and your kin. So we can reach an agreement and put an end to this feud. If Ruaridh is not within, perhaps his wife and children are within. Come out now, and I will spare ye. It is just afore I will set ablaze on this bonfire, and the wind is now blowing in from the sea!”

He waited a while, but no one stirred within. 

“We will wait a little longer,” he said to his men who surrounded the entrance to the cave. 

Some time passed, and then they heard a voice say, “Sir, spare us, we are coming out now.”

A woman and a boy appeared at the entrance.

“Who are you?” inquired Uilleam.

“I am Lady MacDonald, the wife of Laird MacDonald, and this is my young son Ross.”

“Where is your husband?” asked Uilleam.

“I hope, in no place so unsanctified, where such as thou mayst find him,” she bravely answered. 

Uilleam countered, “He’s a treacherous brigand! And murderer of my kin, and comrades in arms!”

“Not a murderer, but a justifiable executioner, scourging the Western Isles of evil.”

“I repeat, he is a knave, madam!” 

Ross, the young son of Ruaridh was outraged at these insults to his father. He exclaimed angrily, “Thou liest, thou shag-hair’d villain!”

“What, you scamp! You young spawn of a treacherous father!” He drew his dagger from its sheath and thrust it into the boy’s stomach. 

Ross fell to the ground moaning and gasping, “He has kill’d me, mother. Run away, I pray you!”¹¹

Lady MacDonald ran down towards the beach crying ‘Murder!’ The MacLeod men followed in her tracks. She managed to reach the beach, but was surrounded by four of the MacLeod men. They hacked at her body, severing her head and limbs, which they cast into the ocean. The MacLeod men returned to the entrance of the cave where Uilleam was waiting.

“Well – tis it done?” he asked the four men.

“Yes, sire, she is now a hearty meal for the scavengers and the fish of the sea. We severed her limbs and threw them into the waves so she will be easier to digest.”

“Excellent, my men; I knew I could depend on you. But now, to the work at hand, we need to rid the earth of this MacDonald filth. Ignite the bonfire!”

Screams and shouts were heard from the cave—bairns begging their mammies, “Ma, I can’t breathe!”

“My baby, hold me tight. We’re going to heaven. Don’t be afright.”

Uilleam paid little attention to the screams and utterings of the bairns and their mothers and heaped more thatch and heather on the fire. Thus perished the entire population of the Isle of Eigg, save Flora, the old woman in Hulin.     

For this treacherous deed of slaughtering defenceless men, women and children, Uilleam the son of Crotach became known as ‘Uilleam of the Cave’ for ever after.

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Footnotes

1.  ^{This is adapted from Dressler, 2007.} ↩︎
2.  ^{Cucking stools or ducking stools, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucking_stool Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.} ↩︎
3.  ^{‘Waterboarding’: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-22/ksm-waterboarding-guantanamo-testimony Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.} ↩︎
4.  ^{Can you tell us now, you witch!} ↩︎
5.  ^{“I can’t breathe” is a slogan associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The phrase originates from the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York City Police Officer. https://www.google.com/search?q=i+can%27t+breathe+american+police&rlz=1C1GCEV_noNO866NO866&oq=i+can%27t+breathe&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0j69i59j0l3.8837j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.} ↩︎
6.  ^{At least let me chop off the old witch’s head and throw it down the well before we leave father!} ↩︎
7.  ^{Enraged, the MacLeods ploughed the sands in the bay – to this day, there are no shellfish to be found there.} ↩︎
8.  ^{“He’s a big guy. It’s a decent suit. There’s puckering on the back because [he has a] fuller shoulder, fuller back, and he’s a little hunched in it — like a hunchback. 
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/06/just-how-big-is-trump-we-asked-5-experts-to-you-guessed-it-weigh-in/ Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.} ↩︎
9.  ^{Blood will have blood! Shakespeare’s MacBeth.} ↩︎
10.  ^{This treacherous clan has slaughtered our women and children in the past, the Bible tells us, “An eye for an eye.} ↩︎
11.  ^{Adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 2.} ↩︎