The defeat of the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, on the bleak battlefield of Culloden Moor on April 16th 1746 ended any hopes of restoring the Royal House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. After fleeing the battlefield, the prince spent five months, travelling mainly on foot, living rough in the wilds of Highland Scotland, evading the thousands of government troops taking part in the biggest manhunt the area has ever seen. Despite the £30,000 price on his head, no one betrayed him and he eventually fled back to France and obscurity. The legacy of his flight is a wealth of romantic songs and stories.
Charlie crossed to South Uist by boat in the dead of night and was taken to meet Flora Macdonald at her home at Milton. She agreed to assist him and with her he made his famous escape to Skye dressed as Betty Burke, her Irish maid. They landed at Vatternish Point where the Prince and Flora parted company never to meet again.
He and a companion then walked south to Portree, crossed to Raasay, where he spent the night in a crude hut because government troops had razed everything else. Finding no help he returned to Portree and walked south to Elgol to take a boat to Mallaig.
Flora MacDonald was arrested and imprisoned for her part in the Prince’s escape. After her release she married and emigrated to North Carolina where her husband and son ended up fighting for the British Government during the American Revolution. She was thrown out of her home when she refused to take an oath of allegiance to the North Carolina Congress and she and her husband returned to Scotland. She died on Skye in 1790.
Her last resting place is the small graveyard behind the Skye Museum of Island Life. From her Celtic cross memorial there is an excellent view across The Minch to her birthplace of Uist.
Situated just north of Uig the Museum is a recreation of a small township complete with thatched croft house, barn, blacksmiths and weavers shed. These are fairly modern in comparison to the more primitive Hebridean Black House which Flora MacDonald would have been familiar with.
These were long, dry stone constructed cottages with thatched, or turf roof, low doors and narrow windows. The family would live in one side, cooking and keeping warm from a single peat fire burning in the centre of the room. There were no chimneys and the smoke would permeate the living space making it very smoky. Separated by a thin wooden partition the cattle would live in the other side of the house.
There’s a Black House at the Folk Museum at Colbost. Sheep cluster round the door and a huge, black pot hangs from a chain suspended from the rook as the peat smoke curls lazily past it to the rafters. It has the appearance of a lived in dwelling which is not surprising as people were still living in Black Houses in the late 1960’s.
A smaller thatched hut behind the cottage contains the still where the tenant made his own illegal whisky.
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