A cache in a short series of Historic caches
around the Isle of Skye
The Battle of the Spoiling of a Dyke
Today in many a clachan in the Isle of Mists and rain
They tell at winter ceilidh this story o’er again
And many a timid cailleach, when the evening shadows fall,
Avoids the place that bears the name ‘Destruction of the Wall’.
(The Songs of Skye: The Burning of Trumpan Church)
On a Sunday in May 1578 a party of MacDonalds from Uist landed in Ardmore Bay in a fleet of eight ships under cover of mist, and found their way to Trumpan Church where they surprised the local people, MacLeods, at worship. In one of the cruellest episodes in the Island’s history, the MacDonalds set fire to the thatched church, burning the congregation or putting any that escaped the flames to the sword, save one. The woman, mortally wounded, escaped and raised the alarm, though the flames of the church had been seen by the guards at Dunvegan Castle. Vengeance was swift, for the MacLeods, aided by the forces of the Fairy Flag, that changed ‘the very grass blades ... to armed men’, set about the MacDonalds, forced them back to the bay, where they discovered that their galleys had been beached by a retreating tide. All but a handful of the MacDonalds were slain, and their bodies laid alongside a stone dyke that was pushed over them as a makeshift grave.
The MacDonalds’ act was itself a reprisal for an equally savage act, when the MacLeods found hundreds of them hiding in a cave on the island of Eigg, and suffocated them by lighting a fire at the cave entrance.
Sceptics might wonder at this tale. No one disputes that there was a battle, though some authorities maintain it was at a different Battle of Waternish that the Fairy Flag was unfurled.
Likewise, records show that Waternish at the time belonged to the MacLeods of Lewis, not of Skye, who did not attain possession until 30 years after the date of the massacre. Nor is there any mention among the works of contemporary writers to the Massacre of Eigg. And would the MacLeods have pushed a perfectly good wall, used as protection for crops, over slain bodies when they could just as easily have dumped them in the sea? Finally, in what circumstances would a sea-faring clan like the MacDonalds of Uist be likely to overlook the consequences of a retreating tide?
As is typical of Skye, here again we encounter elements of the Island’s history so strongly permeated with tradition and mangled in the telling by the passage of time as to defy logical explanation. Nor should we be too diligent in seeking one.
The cache overlooks Ardmore Point, and offers view across the Hebridean Sea to the Outer Isles.
The cache can be tackled as a drive-by, but it is beside a narrow, single track road. So, it is better to park at the Trumpan church car park, where there is also another cache nearby. Walk down the road from the church, and follow it round to the cache location.