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DUNTULM CASTLF, AND THE
KILMUIR CENTENARIAN.
SIR ALEXANDER
MACDONALD had large transactions with Perthshire cattle-dealers, and
also regularly sent stock under his own men to the English markets,
but great as his handling was, as already shown under the Parish of
Sleat, he is found borrowing money to carry on. I have a bond by him
to Mr Alexander Nicolson, minister of the gospel, at Aird, in Sleat,
for the sum of seven thousand merks, dated at Ord, 22nd October,
1744, and witnessed by Alexander Macdonald of Kingsburgh, and Donald
Macdonald of Castleton.
The family at this
period had already removed from Duntulm to Monkstadt. When on a
previous occasion I was in Skye, I heard that a very old woman,
reputed to have passed her 100th year, lived not far from Duntulm.
In 1892 she came to the roadside to meet me by request, accompanied
by all the women and children of her township. I found the old lady
most interesting, her chief story—and on account of which she was
best known—was that she had in her youth spoken to a woman who, in
her 16th year, attended and danced at the last ball held in the
Castle of Duntulm, where Simon Lord Lovat and several
Inverness-shire and Argyleshire proprietors were present.
I am not exactly sure
when Duntuim was vacated, but believe it was between 1720 and 1730.
Supposing this ball occurred in 1728, my visitor had seen and
conversed with a woman born in 1712, 18o years before my visit.
Duntulm Castle has
been a ruin for more than 150 years, and it is greatly to be
regretted that so much of it was destroyed and carried away for base
purposes within the memory of many living.
In regard to the
Kilmuir Centenarian I copy an entry in my Common Place Book, made
11th of August, 1892, of an event occurring on 7th of June
preceding, and as the ' King of Skye" told me on one occasion that
it had been abandoned—he thought, about 1730— one life connected an
event which had occurred at least 160 to 170 years ago. It is as
follows :-
"On Tuesday, the 7th
day of June, 1892, while canvassing in the north of Skye on my way
from Kilmuir to Kilmaluag by Duntuim, and when passing the ruins of
the Castle of Duntulm, Mr Archibald Macdonald, Garafad, who
accompanied me, together with Mr Alexander Mackenzie of the Scottish
Highlander, mentioned that there was an old woman at Kilmaluag,
reported to be about 103 years of age, who possessed some
information in regard to the castle when occupied. Being under the
impression that the castle was vacated long before Culloden, I asked
that I might have an opportunity of speaking to the old woman, and a
messenger was despatched to bring her to the roadside. On coming
towards Kilmaluag, we found her waiting with several others who had
been attracted by the summons. Her name is Christy Macleod. She had
hobbled up to the road from her own house, no great distance, with
the aid of two sticks. Her clothing was very scanty. She had a nice
countenance, good eyesight, not very deaf, and such teeth as
remained were sound and white. Interrogated in Gaelic, she having no
English, she stated that she had lived in the neighbourhood all her
days, and remembered when a great deal of the walls of Duntulm was
entire. She was well acquainted in her youth with a very old woman
named Mary Macdonald, who married a Donald or Alexander Macdonald,
who told her, and she heard her repeat it to others, that when she
was 16 years of age she was an under chambermaid at Duntulm, and had
danced at a ball in the Castle when the Macdonalds of Sleat were
then occupying it. That Lord Lovat, Macleod of Macleod, Lochbuie,
and a great number of Inverness-shire and Argyleshire gentlemen were
entertained at the castle for about a week. The old woman thankfully
received a half-crown piece, which she examined with deliberation,
and I received her blessings. This said Mary Macdonald was
afterwards married within the castle." |
