Gairloch in North-West Ross-Shire: Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History, with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree, and a Map and IllustrationsDixon, John H. (John Henry)
History
Gairloch in North-West Ross-Shire: Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History, with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree, and a Map and Illustrations
Dixon, John H. (John Henry)
Gairloch (Scotland) -- Guidebooks; Gairloch (Scotland) -- History; Ross and Cromarty (Scotland) -- History
He made up the bundle of sticks for her, and she went
to Leod's house, and duly returned with the news that Leod had fixed a
hunt for the next day, and was to meet the people at Kenlochewe in the
morning. She said Leod might be known by the red jacket he wore. Murdo
determined to take advantage of this occasion, and was early on the
ground, accompanied by his followers. As the people arrived he slew all
he did not recognise; the natives he knew were dismissed to their homes.
When Leod, in his red jacket, came on the ground with his sons and
attendants, Murdo and his band attacked them with their swords, and
after a slight resistance Mac Gilleandreis and his followers fled, but
were soon overtaken at a place ever since called Fe Leoid, where they
were all slain except one of Leod's sons, named Paul, who was taken
prisoner, but afterwards released on his promising never again to molest
Mackenzie. Murdo gave the widow of Leod Mac Gilleandreis to Gille
Riabhach to wife, and their posterity were long known at Kenlochewe. The
heads of the people who were slain in Kenlochewe were cut off and thrown
into the river there; the stream carried the heads down to a ford, where
they massed together, and this place has ever since been called
Ath-nan-ceann, or the "ford of the heads." The name is now corrupted
into Athnagown or Anagown. It is shewn on the maps. The place where Leod
Mac Gilleandreis and his followers were slain is about three miles from
Kenlochewe, on the hill to the east of the Torridon road. The name Fe
Leoid, more correctly written Feith Leoid, means the bog of Leod; it is
also shewn on all the maps.
Black Murdo of the Cave, after dispossessing Leod Mac Gilleandreis, went
to Kintail, where he was received with open arms by all the people of
the country. He married the only daughter of his friend Macaulay, who
had defended Eileandonain Castle during his long absence, and through
her Mackenzie succeeded to the lands of Loch Broom (including probably
the parts of Gairloch lying to the north of Loch Maree and Loch Ewe),
granted to Macaulay's predecessor by Alexander II. In 1357, when David
II., king of Scotland, returned from England, Murdo laid before his
majesty a complaint against the Earl of Ross for the murder of his
father, but could obtain no redress; however the king confirmed him in
his possession of Kintail by charter dated 1362. Murdo died in 1375.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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