TRUMPAN…..Wild, at times Tranquil…..but also Haunted!

Trumpan was a community on the far  North West of the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Located on the cliffs on the Vatenish peninsula it can be a wild location.  Views over the Minch look out towards the Outer Hebrides and beyond them the next stop would be America. Most days it is a wild location. On other days it is much more tranquil, a surround of blue seas on one side and green and yellow meadow grasses on the other.  But search as hard as you can and you will not find the village that was once Trumpan.  What you will find is the small but dramatic ruins of Trumpan Church and then you can unearth a haunting and bloody story of a Scottish Clan Feud.

But first the Church.  There are I believe records that date the church to the 1300’s but most historians imagine it that it goes back to a date even earlier than that. My image goes back 2 years, to the day, when we happened upon the church on a magical Island morning.  (For the photographers the shot is an HDR image, not usually a fan of HDR but felt that this was the only way to catch the burning sun on the bright green grass, the dark tones of the stonework and the dramatic ever changing sky).

Now for those of you who want to know about its bloody past here is the history bit.

Scottish history is littered with accounts of violent feuds between the Clans, in this case it is the MacLeods of Dunvegan, Skye and the MacDonald Clan. In 1577 the Macleods raided the Island of Eigg where a community of MacDonald’s were in residence, out numbered the MacDonalds took refuge in a cave and this was their undoing. The Macleods set a great fire to burn at the entrance to the cave and all 395 MacDonalds in the cave suffocated.

Revenge was much in the minds of Clan MacDonald of Uist who waited till May the following year 1578.  They picked there time well, waiting for the a large gathering of MacLeods in a service in Trumpan Church.  They approached by boats and moored in Ardmore Bay, in the shelter of the cliffs on which the Church is located.  Whilst the MacLeods worshiped the MacDonald barricaded the door and set fire to the Thatched roof….all but one within died.  The one to escape was a young girl who managed to squeeze through a narrow window but not without  loosing one of her breasts.  She ran 10 miles to Dunvegan the MacLeods Clan Chiefs home to raise the alarm.

On hearing the news the MacLeods gathered a large force with revenge once more on their minds.  They caught the MacDonalds on the beach where their ships were moored, there escape  foiled due to a receding tide leaving their ships high and dry.  All the MacDonalds were killed.  The bodies of the dead MacDonalds were lined up beside a dry stone wall (known as a dyke) and were buried by pushing the dyke onto the bodies….This battle was recorded in Scottish History as  ‘The Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke’.

As I mentioned at the beginning the township was abandoned and all the remains are these ruins and the record of yet another  Clan Massacre.

Despite its bloody past it is still a magical and peaceful place to discover….but it can also be a wild spot.

20th June