Alasdair Crotach MacLeod and Cameron of Lochiel’s Daughter

Many of the items recorded by Calum Maclean from John MacDonald of Highbridge were historical legends or anecdotes. Such tales contain motifs that have been grafted onto real historical episodes and subsequently became the stock in trade of any storyteller worth his salt. To quote the late Alan Bruford, “Among Gaelic folktales the clan legends occupy a unique place: there is nothing quite like them this side of Africa, even in Ireland, because the clan society which produced them was unique in modern Europe.” The following historical tale was taken down by Calum Maclean from John MacDonald’s recitation on the 20th of January 1951:

 

Alasdair Crotach MacLeòid anns an Eilean Sgitheanach, bha e a’ fàs gu math sean ann an Dùn Bheagain. Agus bha gille aige a bha na chuideachda on a bha e glè òg, an gille. Agus chaidh e a-staigh a’ mhadainn a bha seo is am bodach na shuide taobh an teine is feusag mhòr air sìos gu ghlùinean. ’S ann a shaoil leis gun do shluig e each agus dh’fhuirich an t-iorball a-mach, an coltas a bh’ air a’ bhodach. Agus thuirt an gille ris:

 

“Dè a tha a’ cur oirbh, a dhuine?”

 

“Tha mi a’ fàs sean is tha mi grànda agus tha croit orm. Agus mura pòs mi an ùine ghoirid, bidh Cloinn ’ic Leòid, cha bhi sliochd nan dèidh.”

 

“Ma-tà,” ors’ an gille, “na bithibh a’ falbh fon bheachd sin. Gheibh sibh bean fhathast. Thèid sinn a choimhead air Loch Iall an Loch Abar. Agus tha triùir nighean aige agus tha e iongantach mura faigh sibh tè dhiubh.”

 

Dh’fhalbh iad an ceann latha na dhà leis a’ charbad. Fhuair iad thar an aiseadh. Ràinig iad Loch Iall. Chaidh fàilte is furan a chur orra dar a ràinig iad. Chaidh an gille a chur a-staigh do sheòmar san taigh is chaidh am bodach a thoirt a-staigh a-measg nan uaislean. Ach cha do dh’fhaighneachd am bodach de Loch Iall guth mu dheidhinn na h-ingheannan. Dar a bha iad a’ falbh dhachaigh an dèidh treis a thoirt an sin:

 

“Ciamar a chaidh dhuibh?” thuirt an gille.

 

“O! cha tuirt mi facal.”

 

“Ud! cha dèan sin an gnothach. Chan eil sinne a’ dol don Eilean Sgitheanach gun bhean gun leanabh agus an turas air a bheil sin. Agus tillidh sinn air ais.”

 

“Saoil an till?”

 

“Tillidh. Cha tèid mise nas fhaide,” thuirt an gille. “Agus bristidh mise an deigh, ma chuireas sibh-se ur casan roimhe. Deàna’ fhèin an cuid eile.”

 

Thill iad. Shaoil le Loch Iall gur h-ann a dhìochuimhnich iad rudeigin:

 

“Na dhìochuimhnich sibh dad?” thuirt Loch Iall.

 

“Cha do dhìochuimhnich e mòran,” thuirt e. “Ach dhìochuimhnich e bruidhinn. Thàinig e an seo airson bean.”

 

“Thig a-staigh,” thuirt e. “Thig a-staigh. Tha triùir nigheann ann. Agus bheir sinn a-nuas an tè as sine an toiseach feuch dè their ise.”

 

Chaidh a toirt a-nuas don t-seòmar agus faighneachd dhith am pòsadh i MacLeòid. Thuirt i nach pòsadh. Ma bha an liop aig a’ bhodach ìseal an uair sin, bha i tur, dona dar a chaidh a dhiultadh. Bha tè eile ann. Thug iad a-nuas an tè eile. Cha ghabhadh.

 

“O! tha seo dona.”

 

Thug iad an sin a-nuas an tè a b’ òige agus thuirt iad rithe:

 

“An gabh thu an duine seo airson ceile pòsda?”

 

“Gabhaidh,” thuirt i.

 

“Tha mi grànda,” thuirt e, “agus tha croit orm.”

 

“Tha mi coma,” thuirt i. “Chan fhaca mi croit na cnoc fhathast nach robh fasgadh air taobh air choireigin deth.”

 

Agus phòs iad agus ’s ann mar sin a chaidh an teaglach aig MacLeòid a chumail a suas an Dùn Bheagain. Agus chaochail Alasdair Crotach ann an 1547. Agus tha e air a thìodhlacadh thall an Roghdal anns na Hearadh.

 

And the translation goes something like this:

 

Alexander Crotach MacLeod was in the Isle of Skye and was growing quite old in his home of Dunvegan. He had a servant who accompanied him from a very young age. He went in one morning and the old man was sitting by the fire with his long beard reaching down to his knees. He thought that the old man looked as if he had swallowed a horse and had left its tail hanging out. The servant asked him:

 

“What’s wrong, man?”

 

“I’m growing old and I’m ugly and I’m humpbacked. And if I don’t marry in a short while, there’ll not be a Clan MacLeod, there’ll be no progeny to follow.”

 

“Well,” said the servant, “don’t thinking like that. You’ll get a wife yet. We’ll go to visit Cameron of Lochiel in Lochaber for he has thee daughters and it would be amazing if you don’t get one of them.”

 

They set off after a day or two in a vehicle. They got over on the ferry and they reached Cameron of Lochiel. On reaching they place they were made very welcome. The servant was put into a room in the house and the old man was taken in with the company of the noblemen. But the old man never asked Cameron of Lochiel about his daughters. When they leaving for home after a little while:

 

“How did you do?” the servant asked.

 

“Oh! I didn’t say a word.”

 

“Od! that won’t do. We’re not going back to the isle of Skye without a wife or a child as this is the business we came on. And we’ll go back.”

 

“Do you think we should return?”

 

“Yes. I’ll not go any further,” said the servant. “And I’ll break the ice if you’ll put your feet through. The rest will take care of itself.”

 

They went back. Cameron of Lochiel thought that they had forgotten something:

 

“Have you forgot anything?” asked Cameron of Lochiel.

 

“He didn’t forget a lot,” he said, “but he forgot to speak. He came here to get a wife.”

 

“Come in,” he said. “Come in. I have three daughters and we’ll take down the older one to begin with to see what she has to say.”

 

She was taken down to the room and asked if she was willing to marry MacLeod. She said she wasn’t willing to marry him. If the old man’s lip was low then, it was far lower when he was reject. There was another one. The took down the other one. She refused to marry him as well.

 

“Oh! this is bad.”

 

They took down then the youngest one and they asked her:

 

“Will you take this man for you husband.”

 

“Yes, I will,” she said.

 

“I’m ugly,” he said, “and I’m humpbacked.”

 

“I don’t care,” she said, “I’ve never seen a hump or a hill yet where there isn’t shelter on one side or another of it.”

 

And they were married and that his how MacLeod’s family kept going in Dunvegan. Alexander Crotach MacLeod died in 1547 and he is buried over in Rodel in the Isle of Harris.

 

Lord Alexander (not mentioned in any sources until 1498) is better known as Alasdair Crotach MacLeod (c. 1450–1547), or ‘hunchbacked’, which may have been caused by a wound at the Battle of Blood Bay (1480) in which his father, Uilleam Dubh, was slain. He succeeded to the chiefship in that year and was one of the longest serving MacLeod chiefs. Alasdair Crotach did indeed marry a daughter of Cameron of Lochiel. The nineteenth-century Bannatyne manuscript relates of how Alasdair Crotach was still unmarried even though he was no longer a young man. Cameron of Lochiel had ten daughters and offered him one any of them as a wife. Alasdair Crotach married the youngest of them and she lived to an old age and was buried beside her husband. Alasdair Crotach and his wife had issue: three sons and two daughters.

 

References:

Calum I. Maclean, The Highlands (London: Batsford, 1959)

SSS NB 1, pp. 40–43

 

Image:

Detail of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod’s tomb, Rodel, Harris. The MacLeod chieftain is portrayed wearing bascinet, an aventail and hauberk of mail, with two ankle-length undergarments and holds a claymore with a long-handled axe