Clan against Clan

September 25, 2007

Trumpan church, church with a bloody historyIn the days of old, the clans of Scotland used to fight harsh battles amongst them. You can find tales of clan clashes all over the internet. A story which impressed me quite a bit was the one about Trumpan Church, a church in the hamlet of Trumpan here on Skye on the Waternish peninsula.

One day in May in the year 1578 galleys of the clan MacDonald of Uist came to Trumpan and massacred the congregation of Trumpan Church - people of the clan MacLeod - by setting fire to the church. It is said that one women survived and managed to warn the MacLeod’s in Dunvegan. The revenge of the MacLeod’s was swift and eventually all of the MacDonalds were killed as they could not launch their boats due to low tide. The battle was named the ‘Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke’ (’Blar Milleadh Garaidh’ in Gealic) so called because, when all was over, the bodies of the MacDonald clansmen were buried by the toppling of a great dyke or wall of turf onto their bodies.

It’s hard to imagine… a peaceful congregation gathered together in a church and all being slaughtered. Even harder to imagine when you’re standing there - in modern times - and everything is quiet and peaceful…

Posted by roger | Filed Under Blog, History 

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