Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

Fate or God often helps the evil ones. So as fate so had ordered it, a miracle of a boat belonging to the Laird of MacLeod found them. They were brought to the Dunvegan Castle in Skye, the seat of the Laird, Alistair Crotach.They met their father and complained of their injuries.

“What has happened ter ye my sons?” Alasdair Crotach asked, when he saw what a miserable state they were in.

Stephen remained silent and only looked at the floor.

Uilleam also remained silent because he seemed too badly beaten to find the words to speak.

“Well, speak up, son,” Crotach said, looking at Stephen. “Your brother is in too bad a way to answer for himself.”

Stephen answered hoarsely, still looking down at the floor, “Father, the usurping MacDonalds of Eigg have murdered all our men. They mutilated them and dismembered their limbs. They were hung from the branches of the trees like some strange fruit for the crows to pluck, and the sun to rot. In the end, they cast us adrift without oar and rudder. It is only by some miracle that we were rescued by some of our men.”

“But why—what reason did they give?”

“We were sailing to Eigg to hew some rock from the An Sgurr. Uilleam had explained that it has healing properties and could heal your humpback and make it straight again. But we were caught in a storm and sought refuge on Castle Island, south of the Isle of Eigg. At first, the islanders hospitably entertained us, as the custom is. But one of the fair maidens there, a beautiful herd girl named Catriona, took a liking to Uilleam.

“While feasting and drinking, they became intimate. Uilleam was unaware that the girl was a favourite of Ruaridh, the MacDonalds’ chief on Eigg. He has a lot of bastard children with several peasant girls of the island. One of the other herd girls, Mary, became jealous, as she also had an eye for Uilleam. She rowed back to Eigg to tell Ruaridh MacDonald that we were insulting and molesting the herd girls and slaughtering the cattle.” 

Enraged on receiving the news, Ruaridh gathered his men and sailed to Castle Island. Angus MacLeod, our Chief of Arms, was drunk and had molested one of the herd girls. The MacDonald men witnessed this as they crept up on us. We were taken by surprise as we were feasting and enjoying their hospitality. That is how the slaughter started. Some of our men were drunk and unable to defend themselves. So they bound him to a tree, and Ruaridh MacDonald, the MacDonald chief, cut his throat and decapitated him, and his men hung his head on the branch of a tree.

“I’ve told ye both before yer whoring and drinking only lead to trouble. Your debauched brother is an accident waiting to happen!”

He continued in great rage, “But done is done; we need to defend the clan’s honour, and not least, the slaughter of my dear cousin, Angus. We will have vengeance! After ye have rested, we will take our galleys and one hundred men and slaughter every last one of the MacDonald villains on the Isle of Eigg. I swear, I will not change my clothes¹ until every last one of the Eiggachs has become food for the crows and worms.”

Stephen had told this pack of lies on the threat of death from his older brother, who chose not to speak but insisted that Stephen tell the tale, as it would be better believed by his father coming from his mouth. Stephen was not an evil man like his brother Uilleam, but he was a coward, willing to passively witness the slaughter of hundreds to save his own neck.

With that, the brothers rested some time before they were well enough to embark on the planned slaughter of the Eigg people.

Thus, after some time, when Uilleam and Stephen recovered from their beating and their perilous journey, the MacLeod men put to sea with their galleys. There were many galleys and many men, so the people of the small isle of Eigg had no hope of defeating them. 

Footnote

1.  ^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alasdair_Crotach_MacLeod Accessed. 28 Feb. 2022.} ↩︎