ROSS CRAWFORD

SUPERVISORSMARTIN MACGREGOR (SCOTTISH HISTORY)

THOMAS CLANCY (CELTIC)

The Massacre of Eigg in 1577

Encapsulation of Eigg

‘The less I inquired into its history on the spot, the more was I likely to feel satisfied that I knew something about it’

Reverend John Swanson, Free Church Minister for Small Isles parish, 1844.

Ref: Hugh Miller, The Cruise of Betsey (Boston 1862), 42.

Entrance of the ‘Massacre Cave’

The most notorious massacre of ‘Linn nan Creach’, the ‘Age of Forays’.

It is alleged that in 1577, c. 395 men, women and children of the Clanranald were asphyxiated in a cave by a MacLeod raiding party.

Map of Eigg

Circled in red, Uamh Fhraing (the ‘Cave of Frances’) is located on the south coast of the island.

The cave became a major tourist attraction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Walter Scott, Tales of a Grandfather

Eigg and the other ‘wild wars of the islanders’ will provide ‘some idea of the fierceness of their manners, the low value at which they held human life, the cruel manner in which wrongs were revenged, and the unscrupulous violence by which property was acquired.’

Ref: Walter Scott, The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Vol. III 1524-1644 (Edinburgh 1836), 294-5.

Dr Samuel Johnson on Eigg

‘I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the cave in which a former generation of Islanders were smothered by MacLeod.’

Ref: Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (London 1791), 295.

Historiography

Most modern academic works follow Donald Gregory’s silence.

Some critical analysis by John Lorne Campbell, A Very Civil People (2000), Camille Dressler, Eigg: the story of an island (1998) and Denis Rixson, The Small Isles: Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck (2001).

Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil (2007)

Eigg proves theory of ‘genocidal massacres’.

Source: internet forum

Emphasises need for reassessment.

Aims/Themes

• Investigate this notorious event without seeking to prove or disprove.

• Significance: arguably the most notorious act of violence in Gaelic Scotland in this period.

If a reasonable degree of doubt can be found, there may be cause to re-evaluate paradigm of ‘Linn nan Creach’.

• Trace the evolution of Gaelic tradition as it interacts with the external.

Structure

Section 1Contemporary Context and Sources

Section 2Local Tradition and the Travellers

CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT AND SOURCES

Section 1

Earliest Source: ‘The Description of the Isles of Scotland’,

c. 1595

‘… in March, anno 1577, weiris and inmitie betwixt the said Clan Renald and McCloyd Herreik, the people with ane callit Angus John McMudzartsonne, their capitane, fled to ane of the saidis coves, taking with thame thair wives, bairnis, and geir, quhairof McCloyd Herreik being advertisit landit with ane great armie in the said Ile, and came to the cove and pat fire thairto, and smorit the hail people thairin to the number of 395 persones, men, wife, and bairnis’.

W. F. Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. III (Edinburgh 1890), 440

‘The note of the Weste Isles of Scotland’, 1593‘The note of the Weste Isles of Scotland’, 1593

‘Account of the West Isles of Scotland’, April 1596

‘Account of the West Isles of Scotland’, April 1596

(Ruaraidh) MacLeod of Lewis is ‘famous for the massacring of his awen kinsemen’.

Details the ‘barbarous wars’ fought between the clans in the 1580s.

Refers to the ‘controversy between MacLeod Harris and the Clan Ranalds…whereof great murders have ensued but old MacLeod had always the upper hand’.

Other Reports on the Isles

Dean of Limerick: Unreliable Source?

In the ‘Account’ (April 1596), Campbell states he ‘never took special regard’ of his ‘slender observations’, and pledges to correct any errors or omissions when he is ‘more certainly and fully instructed in the same’.

‘The Description’ was written before 1595, prior to trip to meet with Argyll.

Argyll: more reliable informer? In altering his account of the MacLeod/Clanranald

feud, is Campbell correcting an error?

Clanranald/MacLeod feud in 1570s: Possible Origin?

In 1574, Regent Morton granted the lands of Glenelg in Lochalsh to the Clanranald.

Results in ‘cruel slaughter and hership’ by that clan.

• Ancient patrimony of the MacLeods of Harris (originally known as MacLeods of Glenelg).

Glenelg

Strategically crucial area.

Bernera Barracks built following the 1715 Jacobite Rising.

Seat of MacLeods: Dunvegan Castle

Seat of Clanranald:Tioram Castle

Clanranald/MacLeod feud in 1570s (2)

Bond of manrent between Iain (John) Muideartach, chief of Clanranald, and Colin, earl of Argyll in September 1576.

Iain agrees to…

‘…demit the lands of Glenelg in favour of Tormoud McLoyd, bind themselvis to join with the McLanes and to refer all matters regarding [all slaughters and hairscheepis, debates betwixt the said] McCloyd of Herra to the said Earl’

Argyll Transcripts, vol. VII, 19.

Clanranald/MacLeod feud in 1570s (3)

Contract between Tormod MacLeod of Dunvegan and Allan Mackane Moidart, captain of Clanranald (Iain’s son) on 11 July 1577.

Tormod and Allan agreed to cease hostilities consisting of…

‘…debaitis, contraverseis, slauchtaris, hairschippis and all uthir injuries commitit and done be alther of thame agains utheris preceeding the dait heiroff’.

Argyll Transcripts, vol. VII, 26.

Iain (John) MuideartachIain (John) Muideartach Allan, son of IainAllan, son of Iain

Clanranald Seals

Timeline: Political Background

1551: Death of William MacLeod of Harris.His daughter, Marie, is sole heiress of MacLeod lands.1559: Bond of friendship between Argyll and Tormod

(William’s brother and successor)1566: Argyll becomes ward of Marie.Marries her to kinsman, Duncan Campbell of

Auchinbreck.• Marie agrees to renounce her claim to her uncle, Tormod.• Tormod pays Argyll £1000 in exchange.• 1573: Marie renounces claim but not confirmed until

1579.

~Clanranald attack in 1574 risks Argyll’s plans?~

MacLeod Family Tree & Campbell Relations

Tormod MacLeod

(brother of William)

William MacLeod(d. 1551)

Marie MacLeod(sole heiress)

Dougall Campbell of Auchinbreck

(revives claim, 1630s)

Colin Campbell, earl of Argyll

Duncan Campbell

of Auchinbreck

Fri

en

dsh

ip

1559

Wardship 1566Arr

ange

s

mar

riag

e

Legal Struggle Between Frasers & MacLeods

• 1527: Frasers claim Glenelg.• 1535: Receive charter from crown.• 1550s: Succession crisis within MacLeods.Clanranald installed as tenants of Clan Fraser.• 1570s: MacLeod recovery?• 1574: Clanranald attack on Glenelg.• 1574-1610: Clanranald occupation.Peaceful cohabitation after 1577?• 1611: Glenelg formally granted to MacLeods by

crown.

Internal Strife Within the Clanranald

1577 Contract: the first-born son (Allan Og) and brother (Angus) of Allan, the Clanranald chief, had both committed ‘offensis and injuries’ against their own friends and kin ‘in support of the said tormoid’.

Allan spurned first wife, daughter of MacLeod of Harris, in favour of MacLean of Duart’s daughter.

New marriage threatened the inheritance of his first-born son, Allan Og, who supported his mother.

Coincided with Allan’s succession: weak position?

Allan’s ‘Domestic Irregularities’

Tormod MacLeod of

Harris

Tormod’s daughter

Allan Og

Allan, captain of Clanranald

Hector’s daughter

Hector Og MacLean of

Duart

John of Strome

Angus(Allan’s brother)

Threat to inheritance

Allies

2 nd marriage

1st

mar

riag

e

Summary

Tumultuous period for MacLeods and Clanranald.Frasers and Campbells were major players too.• Poor relations between MacLeods and ClanranaldProbable feuding between clans 1574-77. Infighting within Clanranald: potential coup? - No record of this violence in Privy Council.

- No direct evidence for massacre on Eigg or elsewhere.

Later Events on Eigg

• c. 1595: ‘The Description’ states Eigg could still ‘raise 60 men to the weiris’ at the time of writing.

• 1615: Sir James MacDonald’s muster.

• 1625: Catholic mission ‘converted’ 198 of inhabitants.

• 1626: No mention of massacre in Iain Muideartach’s letter to Pope Urban VIII.

Lachlan MacLean’s raid

• Lachlan MacLean raided Eigg, Canna and Rum in October 1588:

• ‘thay tressonablie rased fyre, and in maist barbarous, shamefull and cruell maner, brynt the same Illis, with the haill men, wemen and childrene being thairintill, not spairing the pupillis and infantis’.

• True origin of the Eigg massacre? Deliberate transference?

Eigg Omitted By Other Works

• ‘The History of the Feuds and Conflicts Among the Clans’ (1612-1625)

• Robert Gordon, A Genealogical History of Sutherland (1615-30)

• Hugh MacDonald, ‘History of the MacDonalds’ (mid-1600s)

• Niall MacMhuirich, The ‘Red Book of Clanranald’ (late-1600s)

Martin Martin, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703)

Donald Gregory, History of the Western Highland and Isles of Scotland (1836)

LOCAL TRADITION AND LITERARY LEGACY

Section 2

The tomb of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod

St Clement’s church in Rodel, Harris.

Alasdair died in 1547.

Tradition generally maintains that Alasdair was responsible for the massacre of Eigg.

Evidence for Alasdair’s Involvement

‘Alexander [Alasdair Crotach] MacLeod of Harris, having married the Laird of Muidort’s [Clanranald’s] daughter sent her home some time thereafter, but the Laird of Muidort afterwards apprehending him in Egg hanged MacLeod’s brother and kept himself prisoner for seven years at Castle Tirrim where he got his back broke which made him hunch backed all his lifetime.’

Ref: ‘History of the MacDonalds’ in Highland Papers, vol. I, 68.

First Recording of the Gaelic Tradition

Boswell & Johnson’s local guide, Donald MacLean, laird of Coll, imparts the story.

Coll is knowledgeable & respectful of local tradition/history.

Sponsors the University education of the next storyteller.

James Boswell

Traditional Story by Reverend Donald MacLean

MacLeods land on Eigg and ‘maltreat’ the women.Clanranald ‘pursued and destroyed those strangers’.- Alastair Crotach swears vengenace.

• Islanders flee to a hidden cave which the MacLeods cannot find.

They send out a scout who is spotted and tracked to the cave by his footprints in the snow.

• Brief negotiation before islanders are ‘smoked to death’.

Hugh Miller (1845)

• Read Sir Walter Scott in advance, frustrated by the island’s ‘various and somewhat conflicting editions’.

• Like James Wilson, indulges in grave robbing.

Leaves with ‘relics of the cave’, including pieces of a jar, the fragment of a porringer, and a horse’s tooth.

Ref: Miller, Betsey, 40.

James Wilson (1842)

• His crew were ‘stopping over the damp and slimy floor, in search of relics of the fatal day’.

• Some young locals play up to his expectations.

‘…strange sights…seen about the mouth of the cavern’.

Ref: Wilson, A Voyage Round the Coasts of Scotland and the Isles

(1842), 235-8.

Local Scepticism of the Event?

Travellers are horrified by the cave interior, yet the locals seem fairly nonchalant.

James Wilson observes the locals herding their pigs into the

‘ancestral cave’.Very pragmatic.Bones left unburied for hundreds of years.- Scepticism?

Prospect of Tourism?

• Iona was a clear benchmark.

Tourism of ‘undeniable’ benefit to the island.

- Evidence of similar dealings on Eigg.

• Harness what was available to their benefit?

Complicity in perpetuating the story.

M.E.M. Donaldson (1923)

• New female protagonist offered by Mairi of the Post Office.

• A local landmark, ‘a huge basaltic column from the Sgurr’, is ‘only other relic of the massacre’.

A new addition to the story, embeds the tale within the landscape.

Ref: Donaldson, Wanderings in the Western Highlands and Islands (1923), 254-6.

Duncan Ferguson (1965)

Confirms the connection of the stone.

Consistent with earlier tradition, yet weaves in the 1577 date and number of victims from Skene.

Ferguson admits scepticism, a feeling shared by many locals.

Clanranald were too powerful.The bones were left to moulder.Nobody knows the location of the burial.

Explanations for Distrust?

Caveat is unusual: tradition generally recounted in earnest.

External interest, or even origin, of event made it inauthentic?

Cumulative embellishment made it hard to believe.

Misleading image of island life and Gaeldom?

Conclusion

‘Professor’ Maruma, last private landowner of Eigg in 1995:‘Professor’ Maruma, last private landowner of Eigg in 1995:

Dr Samuel Johnson in 1773:Dr Samuel Johnson in 1773:

‘When I went to the cave, I knew this was the right place to be. The cave is the island’s soul because this is where it has been hurt.’

‘I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the cave in which a former generation of Islanders were smothered by MacLeod.’

Defining an Island

Eigg: The Island

Picture by Kevin Walsh