Given the current heated political climate, both here in the US and across the Atlantic, I wanted to post some pretty photos that hearken back to a simpler time.
So here's a picture of a humble old ruined church where, on the first Sunday of May in 1578, members of Clan MacDonald burned all the gathered MacLeod churchgoers alive (save one little girl who managed to escape through a window) by blocking the exit and setting the thatched roof on fire.
This was in retaliation for that time, a few months before, when Clan MacLeod led a raiding party to the nearby isle of Eigg. When the 395 MacDonalds who lived there (the entire population of the island) sought refuge in a cave, the MacLeods set fire to the entrance in the hopes of smoking them out. Instead, they all suffocated.
As the story goes, while Trumpan church burned, a girl who escaped (but was mortally wounded) got word to other MacLeods in Dunvegan, ten miles away. The MacDonalds went back to their boats to flee, but the tide had already left without them (and their boats), leaving them literally and figuratively high and dry.
The alerted MacLeods proceeded to slaughter every member of the MacDonald party, then dragged their bodies up behind a dry stone wall (or dyke), and pushed the wall over on top of them. This battle is now remembered as "The Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke."
I hope you've enjoyed this wee story of a calmer time, when we all weren't so stridently divided. Goodnight!