The Eigg Massacre of 1577

In the heart of Clanranald territory lies the Isle of Eigg, easily discernible from afar by its notch-like rocky outcrop. Despite an idyllic situation of being the now most populated of the Small Isles, Eigg’s reputation belies a bloody past for an infamous massacre that is said to have happened there, the result of a lengthy feud between the MacDonalds of Clanranald and the MacLeods of Dunvegan and Harris. It is claimed that in 1577 the island’s entire population of nearly four-hundred MacDonalds were suffocated to death by the MacLeods in Uamh Fhraing (Frances’s Cave or the Massacre Cave).

The island’s residents took refuge in the cave on the south coast and were suffocated by a fire lit at the entrance by a party of MacLeods in what apparently was a revenge attack. The feud should have ended some years later through the marriage of Allan of Moidart to the daughter of MacLeod of MacLeod, but who then subsequently abandoned her for MacLean of Duart’s daughter. Three centuries later, in 1846, Hugh Miller visited the cave and left a description of the observations he made in his book, The Cruise Of The Betsy, seeing the bones of adults and children in family groups with the charred remains of their straw mattresses and small household objects.

A fairly long account of the Eigg Massacre, as well as the Battle of the Spoiled Dyke, was recorded by Calum Maclean, on the 3rd of September 1947, from Angus John MacLellan (1879–1950), known as Aonghas mac Iain ’ic Chaluim or Aonghas mac Anna Bàine, from Griminish, Benbecula. MacLellan originally heard this historical legend from John MacIntyre, also from Griminish, Benbecula.

Ann an eilean Eige tha uamha ris an can iad Uamha nan Dòmhnallach. Chaidh suas ri ceithir cheud anam a thachdadh gu bàs as an uamhaidh a bha seo agus seo a b’ adhbhar dhan nì a bh’ ann. Thachair gun deach buidheann de Chlann ’icLeòid air tìr ann an Eige agus gun fir Eige aig an taigh. Thug iad masladh dha na boireannaich is dha na mnathan a bha san eilean agus mun d’fhuair iad air falbh às thàinig Clann Dòmhnaill dhachaigh agus fhuaireadh greim air na Leòdaich, agus cheangail iad iad agus chuireadh dha na sgoithean a bh’ aca fhèin iad, agus chuireadh a-mach na sgothean air a’ mhuir. Biodh iad a’ falbh mar a thogradh iad ach mar a bha fortan an dàn dhaibh thachair buidheann de Chlann ’ic Leòid as na bìrlinnean air na bàtaichean a bh’ ann an seo agus fhuair iad an campanaich ceangailte ann. Bha fearg mhòr air na Leòdaich mar a rinneadh air an cuid dhaoine agus air an càraidean agus mhionnaich is bhòidich iad gum biodh dioghaltas aca air muinntir Eig’ airson an nì a rinn iad agus rinn iad sin. Chuir iad mu dheidhinn an latha bha seo a dhol gu Eilean Eige agus roinn mharbhadh am murt a dhèanamh air an fheadhainn a rinn an gnìomh air an càirdean. Ach chunnaic muinntir Eige iad a’ tighinn agus chaidh iad am falach a-staigh dhan uamhaidh a bha seo. Tha an uamha sin mòr agus tha fuaran brèagha de dh’uisge as a’ cheann shuas aice. Bhiodh iad ceart gu leòr mar a biodh gun tàinig aon fhear dhe na h-Eigich a-mach às an uamhaidh a shealltainn feuch na dh’fhalbh na Leòdaich. Thug na Leòdaich an aire dhan duine. As a’ mhionaid thuig iad gu dè bh’ ann, gur h-ann san uamhaidh a bha iad. Thill iad. Dh’iarr i orra an fheadhainn a cheangailte an càirdean a chur a-mach thuca. Siud an rud nach cuireadh càch is mu dheireadh, nuair a chunnaic iad mar a bha an gnothach, fhuair iad fraoch agus chuireadh teine ris ann am beul na h-uamhadh. Chum iad air an teine bha sin gus na thachdadh a h-uile h-anam a bha a-staigh as an uamhaidh, agus nuair a rinn iad sin thog iad orra dhachaigh. Cha robh an gnothach deiseil leis an seo idir air a shon sin. Bha dioghaltas aig Clann Raghnaill – ’s ann leotha bha Eilean Eige san àm – bha dioghaltas nan cridhe mar a rinneadh air muinntir Eige, suas ri ceithir cheud dhen cuid dhaoine a thachdadh as an uamhaidh. Rinn iad mu dheireadh suas gum biodh dioghaltas aca air na Leòdaich, agus air Didòmhnaich as an fhoghar thog sia na seachd a bhìrlinnean a Chlann Raghnaill gu ruig’ an t-Eilean Sgitheanach. Chaidh iad air tìr ann an àite ris an can iad an Trumpan, agus cha robh duine ri fhaicinn mu chuairt. Bha a h-uile duine a bha san tìr as an eaglais agus eaglais Chille Mhoire a chanadh iad rithe, agus cha d’rinn iad ach gabhail suas chon na h-eaglais agus teine a chuir rithe. Nuair a thuig na Leòdaich a bha a-staigh san eaglais gun robh teine ris an eaglais theann iad air feuchainn a-mach. Sin an rud nach fhaigheadh iad a-mach. Cha robh neach a thigeadh a-mach nach robhar am marbhadh. Bhathar gan cumail a-staigh as an teine gus an deach a losgadh gu bàs ach aon bhoireannach a thàinig a-mach. Ghèarr iad dhith an dala brollach, ach leig iad air falbh i beò. Bha fios aca nach ruigeadh i fada air a’ chor as an robh i a’ sileadh fala. Thug i astar math oirre mun tug i suas agus an cnoc air an d’fhuair i bàs, tha ainm a’ bhoireannaich sin fathast air a’ chnoc, Cnoc Mairead.  Chunnaic mu dheireadh na Leòdaich a bh’ aig an taigh. Thug iad an aire dhan cheò ag èirigh on eaglais. Thuig iad gun robh nì nach robh cneasda air tachairt agus chruinnich iad agus sgaoileadh a’ Bhratach Shìdhe a bha an Dùn Bheagain. Tha a’ bhuaidh daonnan aig na Leòdaich ma sgaoilear a’ Bhratach Shìdhe a tha sin agus tha iad ag ràdha gur h-e sin an turas mu dheireadh a sgaoileadh a’ bhratach, gur h-e bu choireach gun d’fhuair na Leòdaich buaidh air Clann Raghnaill. Ach, co-dhiù, tha e coltach gun d’rinn i feum an latha bha seo, co-dhiù bha an àireamh dhe na Leòdaich ro-mhòr neo nach robh, thug iad an aghaidh air Clann Raghnaill. Mar a bha an tubaist sa chùis nuair a dh’fheuch Clann Raghnaill ri teicheadh bha na bìrlinnean aca air tràghadh air cladach, an tràghadh a-staigh. Chan fhaigheadh iad a-mach. Mu dheireadh cha d’rinn iad ach an druim a chuir ri gàrradh a bha os cionn a’ chladaich agus seasamh aige an aghaidh an naimhdean. Ach cha do sheas iad fada. Chaidh a leagail o dhuine gu duine. Cha do shàbhail dhiubh ach còignear na shianar a fhuair do thè dhe na bìrlinnean. Tha an gàrradh a tha sin ri fhaicinn an-diugh fhathast agus iomadh uair tha na cnàmhan aig Clann Raghnaill a’ dùsgadh am bàrr an talmhainne. Cha robh na Leòdaich aig dragh an tìodhlacadh Crìosdail a dhèanamh orra ach an gàrradh a leagail air a muin: agus sin mar a rinneadh air Clann Raghnaill. Cha robh a’ bhuaidh aca agus bha a’ chrois an dàn dhaibh.

And the translation goes something like the following:

On the Isle of Eigg there is a cave called the Cave of the MacDonalds. Around four hundred souls were smothered to death in this cave and this is the story behind the event. It so happened that a group of MacLeods landed on the Isle of Eigg while the Eiggmen were away. They raped the women and maidens in the island but before they could get away the MacDonalds arrived back home and they caught the MacLeods and tied them up, placed them in their own boats, and set them adrift on the sea. They sailed as the wind took them but as fortune would have it the boats happened upon a group of MacLeods in their galleys and they found the men tied up. The MacLeods were greatly angered at what had been done to their men and swore an oath that they would take their vengeance upon the Eigg folk for what they had done and this they carried that out. They set out for the Isle of Eigg with murder in mind for those they had carried out such a heinous act on their relations. The Eigg folk saw them coming and hid themselves in this cave. There’s an extensive cave there with a beautiful spring at one end of it. They would have been sound and safe if it had not been for one of the Eigg folk going out of the cave to try and see if the MacLeods had left. The MacLeods saw this man. Suddenly they understood what had happened – that they had fled to the cave. They came back. They demanded that those who had tied up their kith and kin should be brought out to them. That is something they wouldn’t do and eventually when they saw that this was the case they gathered heather and set it alight at the front of the cave. They kept the fire going until all those inside the cave were smoked to death, and they then headed for home. But the matter had not ended there, not by any means. The MacDonalds of Clanranald vowed vengeance – they had the Isle of Eigg at this period – and they had revenge in mind for what had been done to the Eigg folk, around four hundred of their people had been smoked to death in the cave. They finally made up their minds to be avenged on the MacLeods and one Sunday in Autumn they sailed in six or seven Clanranald galleys to the Isle of Skye. They landed in a place called Trumpan but there was no one to be seen. Everyone was attending church in Kilmuir kirk and so they made their way to the church and set fire to it. When the MacLeods inside saw that the church was on fire they tried to get out. But that was the very thing that they couldn’t do. No one came out that wasn’t killed on the spot. They were kept in while the fire raged until everyone was burnt to death with the exception of one woman who managed to escape. They cut off one of breasts but allowed her to go free. They knew full well that she wouldn’t be able to go far in the state she was losing blood. She managed to go a fair distance before she bled to death on a knoll which is called after this woman: Margaret’s Knoll. Eventually the MacLeods who had stayed at home saw what had happened. They saw the smoke rising from the kirk. They knew something terrible had happened and they gathered and flew the Fairy Flag from Dunvegan Castle. The MacLeods are guaranteed victory in battle if the Fairy Flag is flown and they say that this was the very last time that it was flown and that is the reason why the MacLeods were victorious over the Clanranald MacDonalds. But, in any event, it would appear that it helped matters and if the MacLeods had a greater number present or not, they managed to defeat the Clanranald MacDonalds. It so happens there was another twist in the tale when the Clanranald MacDonald tried to flee in their galleys which were beached on the shore. They had no way of escaping. Finally they made a last stand with their backs against a dyke above the shoreline and stood against their enemy. They didn’t last long. One by one they were slaughtered and only five or six survived to make their escape on one of the galleys. The dyke can be seen to this day and many a the time that bones of the Clanranald MacDonalds have been unearthed. The MacLeods didn’t even bother to give them a proper Christian burial, merely toppling the dyke over them. That’s what happened to the Clanranald MacDonalds. They were defeated and death was their fortune.

A further account was recorded from Donald MacGuire (b. 1866), one of the oldest residents at that time on the Isle of Eigg, by Calum Maclean on the 6th of January 1946:

Well, mar a chuala mise mu dheidhinn Murt na h-Uamhadh ’s ann mar seo, gun d'thàinig feadhainn à Dùthaich ’icLeòid a dh' iarraidh boireannach airson a pòsadh, agus gun a dh’fhalbh muinntir an àite is gun a cheàngail iad na daoine is gun a leig iad air falbh leis a’ ghaothaich iad, gun robh bìrlinn ’icLeoid a’ tighinn a-nuas o deas air an Rudha sin is gun a choinnich am bàta as an robh na daoine rithe, is gun robh iad air an ceàngal ann an sin is na dromannan aca air am bristeadh. Thog e (MacLeòid) na daoine is thug e leis dhachaigh iad. An ceann beagan ùine a-rithist, chuir e nuas a’ bhìrlinn aige fhèin a thoirt a-mach aicheamhail nan daoine. Chruinnich a h-uile h-aon dhe na daoine a bha san àite a dh’ ionnsaigh na h-uamhadh a bha seo. Chaidh iad a-staigh innte, is bha iad innte ann an sin gus an d’ràinig esan. Bha sneachd air a’ ghrunnd mun àm. Bha fear a-staigh as an uamhaidh is chaidh e mach a choimhead feuch am faiceadh e bàta MhicLeòid, bìrlinn. Agus nuair a chunnaic e i, thill e a-staigh, ’S ann an còir a' chùil a thill e, a' dèanadh a-mach gur h-ann a’ dol a-mach a bha e. Nuair a thàinig à-san air tir, fhuair iad lorgan an duine. Lean iad e a dh’ ionnsaigh na h-uamha. Dh’iarr e (Maclèoid) orra am boireannach a chuir a-mach. Cha tigeadh ise a-mach, mura faigheadh i duine air gach meur. Thuirt e gum faigheadh i duine air gach meur air a làmhan. Cha dèanadh sin feum leatha-san, mura faigheadh i duine air a h-uile meur a bh’ orra. Chan fhaigheadh i sin. Cha d’rinn iad an uair sin ach a’ falbh a chruinneachadh a h-uile seòrsa a chuireadh teine ri beal na h-uamha. Chaidh a smocadh a-staigh ann an sin.

And the translation goes something like the following:

Well, I heard about the Eigg Massacre in the following way: that a party of MacLeods came from MacLeod’s Country, i.e. Waternish, to fetch a woman to marry and that some of the locals tied them up and let them go [in their boat] and that MacLeod’s galley was sailing northwards around Rudha when they happened upon the boat in which the men had been tied and who suffered broken backs. MacLeod picked the men up and took them home. A little time after that, he got his galley ready to go and take vengeance out on the men. All the folk gathered and went to this cave. They took shelter inside and they remained there until he [MacLeod] arrived. At the time there was snow on the ground. A man in the cave went out to take a look to see if MacLeod’s galley was there. When he saw it, he went back in. He went to the back then on his return looked as he was going out again. When they landed, they found the footsteps of this man. They followed them to the cave. MacLeod demanded that they should send out the woman. She wouldn’t come out unless she got a man with all his fingers intact. He said that she would get a man with all his fingers intact. It wouldn’t be of any use to her if she didn’t get a man with all his fingers intact. She wouldn’t get that. So all they did was to go and collect all sorts of things in order to set a fire at the mouth of the cave. All those inside were suffocated.

For the sake of completeness, a short version of the Eigg Massacre was also recorded on the 15th of July 1947, by Calum Maclean from Alasdair MacLean (b. 1874), a retired tailor from Inveranish in Raasay:

Dh’fhalbh dithis ghillean a mhuinntir Dhùn Bheagain a dh’ iarraidh bean as Eige, is nuair a ràinig iad bha a leithid de spite aig gillean an eilein daibh, is gun a cheangail iad iad, is chuir iad a-mach air a’ mhuir iad sa bhàta. Dh’fhalbh am bàta is bha iad trì latha air a’ mhuir mus d’fhuair clann ’icLeòid Dhùn Bheagain iad. Dh’fhalbh MacLeòid Dhùn Bheagain is a chuid dhaoine a dh’Eige gu faigheadh iad greim air an fheadhainn a cheangail an dithis ghillean aca fhèin. Nuair a chunnaic muinntir Eige iad a’ tighinn, chrunnich iad is chaidh iad a-staigh ruig uamha mhòr a bha shuas am muallach an eilein, is nuair a thàinig clann ’icLeòid, cha robh sgeul orra. Bha iad a’ dol a dh’ fhalbh, nuair a chunnaic iad duine shuas air cnoc is bha sneachda beag ann is thill iad is lean iad na lorgan aige agus chaidh na lorgan a staigh san uaimh. Dh’iarr MacLeòid Bheagain orra an fheadhainn a cheangail na gillean a chuir a-mach, ach cha chuireadh. Cha chuireadh iad a mach idir iad. Lìon Clann ’icLeòid beul na h-uamha le fraoch, is chuir iad teine ris is mharbh iad na bha staigh. Sin mar a thachair murt Eige.

And the translation goes something like the following:

Two lads from Dunvegan went to Eigg in search of a wife and when they got the local lads had such a spite for them that they tied them up and sent them adrift in a boat. The boat sailed away and they had been three days at sea before the MacLeods of Dunvegan found them. MacLeod of Dunvegan and his men went to Eigg to get hold of those that had tied the two lads up. When the Eigg folk saw them coming they gathered together and fled to a big cave on top of the island so that when MacLeod of Dunvegan arrived there was no sign of them. They were about to go when one of them saw a man up on the hill and they noticed a snow track and they returned and followed the footprints which led into a cave. MacLeod of Dunvegan demanded that hose who had tied up the lads should come out, but they didn’t. They didn’t come out at all. The MacLeods filled up the mouth of the cave with heather and set it alight killing all those inside the cave. That’s how the Eigg Massacre came about.

The so-called massacre is attested in a contemporary source of the sixteenth century but by the eighteenth century the cave site became a rather lurid attraction for visitors such as Boswell and Johnson and a century later by Sir Walter Scott and Hugh Miller. The earliest source stems from Dean Munro’s The Description of the Isles of Scotland, c. 1595:

…in March, anno 1577, weiris and inmitie betwixt the said Clan Renald and McClody Herrick, 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.

It seems that this contemporary account and the above oral accounts are virtually in agreement but other historical sources remain almost silent. For instance, it seems inconceivable that such a massacre, and one on such a scale, would not have been mentioned in the Privy Council’s Records, a body with a reputation for recounting in gruesome detail acts of violence perpetrated in the Highlands and Islands. Another near-contemporary account was written by Timothy Pont, the cartographer, during his voyages around the isles at some point during the 1590s:

They perished and destroyed with the smoak of fyre the number of both of men and woemen an barnes within ane Cove or den that is in this Illand of the Inhabitants by McLeod of Harie being in warrs against him for that tyme, and taking this place for their safetie and refuge.

The massacre narrative may be summarised as follows: MacLeod raiders land on Eigg and maltreat the island’s women when the men folk are away; Clanranald arrives and captures the perpretrators and ties them up and sends the adrift in a boat; the MacLeods by happenstance find the men; MacLeod vows vengeance and sends his men to Eigg; the islanders flee and take shelter on seeing the MacLeod galley; the MacLeods are about to leave when a scout is spotted and tracked by his footprints in the snow back to the cave; a parley ensues before the islanders are smoked to death in the cave; the massacre leads to a revenge attack by the MacDonalds of Clanranald ending in their defeat at the Battle of the Spoiled Dyke.

A further massacre is said to have happened in 1588 when Lachlan MacLean raided Eigg, Canna and Rum in October of that year:

…thay tressonablie rased fyre, and in maist barbarous, shamefull and cruell maner, byrnt the same Illis, with the haill men, women and childrene being thairintill, not spairing the pupillis and infantis.

Has this been confused with an the alleged original massacre that took place a little over a decade previously? Or is there some other reason for the account, perhaps inspired by propaganda? Many of the historical accounts of the Highlands published during the seventeenth century remain suspiciously silent about the Eigg Massacre. Norman MacPherson, writing in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, offers another intriguing historical reference to the alleged massacre:

With regard to the smothering of the inhabitants in Uamh Fhraing by the MacLeods, Macpherson says: — “It would be rash  at once to reject the generally accepted tradition; but it is difficult to reconcile it with the real evidence as to MacLean of Duart and his Spaniards. It is not easy to believe that twice within a few years the whole population should have been destroyed by fire.” Notwithstanding the seeming improbability, the two references found by Macpherson in the Sibbald MSS. in the  Advocates’ Library would alone seem sufficient to establish the substantial accuracy of the tradition. The oldest reference he found in those MSS. attributes the massacre to “M’Leod of Haris,” the inhabitants “being in war against him for that tyme.” The second reference is in the account of the Hebrides, preserved in Sibbald’s own handwriting. Here Macleod is not mentioned, but the date is given and the number of victims is stated. “There are many caves under the earth in the isle which the  country people retire to with their goods when invaded, which  proved fatal to them in the year 1577, where 395 persons, men,  wives and bairns, were smored with putting fire to the caves.”

It is doubtful that this further contemporary reference can substantiate that the massacre occurred or not. Sir Robert Sibbald (1641–1722) is thought to have commenced writing his collections around 1680, and died in 1722. Even though Martin Martin writes about a large cave on the southern shore of the Isle of Eigg, he makes no mention whatsoever of the tragic events said to have happened well over a century before. Moving to the nineteenth century, the situation changes and almost all writers who visited the Isle of Eigg mention the Massacre Cave.

               Having read Scott’s account clearly piqued Hugh Miller’s interest who also visited the cave in 1846: ‘We came upon heaps of human bones grouped together…They are of a brown earthy hue, here and there tinged with green, the skulls with the exception of a few broken fragments have disappeared…Enough remains to show that the hapless islanders died under the wall in families, each little group separated by a few feet from the other…Beneath every heap are the remains of a straw bed largely mixed with the smaller bones and occasionally fragments of englazed pottery and various implements of rude housewifery.’ The few skulls remaining was the result of a macabre vogue of trophy hunting which had been by Sir Walter Scott’s 1814 visit, which finally persuaded the local priest to have all the remains that were left to be buried in hallowed ground in Kildonnan.

             Perhaps what may be concluded is that during the feud between the MacDonalds of Clanranald and the MacLeods of Dunvegan and Harris is that tit for tat retaliatory attacks certainly took place on either side but the contemporary accounts, as reflected in oral tradition, may have become exaggerated, possibly for reasons of propaganda, or were in some way corrupted. Either way, they certainly give the Massacre Cave on the Isle of Eigg a morbid resonance or a lurid fascination as visitors to the island and writers have attested to since at least the nineteenth century even though such accounts should be judged on their own merits and tempered by a degree of scepticism.

Images:

Aerial view of the Isle of Eigg

Sgurr of Eigg from Hugh Miller’s The Cruise of the Betsy

Narrow entrance to Uamh Fhraing or the Massacre Cave

References:

Anon., ‘Eigg Massacre,’ The Oban Times, no. 780 (8 Jan., 1881), p. 5

Anon., ‘Stories from Rum and Eigg’, Scottish Notes and Queries (1890)

J. Ross Calder, ‘Notes on the island of Eigg’, Scottish Notes and Queries (1889–91)

John Lorne Campbell, A Very Civil People, ed. by Hugh Cheape (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2000)

Camille Dressler, Eigg: The Story of an Island (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2007)

Walter Macfarlane, Geographical Collections Relating to Scotland Made by W. Macfarlane,, vol. II, ed. by Sir Arthur Mitchell (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1907)

B. MacLeòid, ‘Mort nan Eigeach: the Isle of Eigg Murders’, Cuairtear nan Gleann, vol. 19 (Sep., 1841), pp. 185–90 [reprinted in Mac-Talla, vol. VII, no. 21 (16 Dec., 1898), pp. 162–63]

J. R. N. MacPhail (ed.), Highland Papers, vol. I (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1914)

Norman MacPherson, ‘Notes on the Antiquities from the Island of Eigg’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 12 (1878), pp. 577–97

Euan McIlwraith, ‘The First MacDonald Massacre: The Eigg Massacre of 1577’, The Scots Magazine, vol. 121, no. 4 (Apr., 1987), pp. 25–27

[Dean] Donald Munro, Monro’s Western Isles of Scotland and the Genealogies of the Clans 1549, ed. by R. W. Munro (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1961)

NFC 1207, ‘Murt Eige’, pp. 192–93

NFC 1207, ‘Murt na h-Uamhadh’, pp. 395–97

NFC 1301, ‘Murt Eige agus Blàr Milleadh-Gàrraidh’, pp. 292–96

Denis Rixon, The Small Isles: Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2001)

[Rev.] Charles M. Robertson, ‘Topography and Traditions of Eigg’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. XXII (1897–98), pp. 193–210

http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/45450/1