The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

FOLK-TALES OF DOUGHTY MEN AND DOUGHTY DEEDS
galore, drawn up above high-water mark, and lying upsidedown.
Not a single oar lay about them. And so Donald
Cam and Alasdair Little-heel wandered on and on, until
they came to Applecross. At Applecross they alighted upon
an old, clinker-built coble so leaky that they had to line the
seams between the planks with clay. From the wooden
gate of a fank near by, they removed two bars. These they
converted into oars. With no high expectation, they
embarked in the leaky coble for Skye. Miserable all the
time was Donald Cam by reason of the weight of the block
and chain he carried—so miserable, in sooth, that they had
proceeded less than halfway across the Inner Sound when
he gave up rowing and baling, and threw himself down in
despair at the stern.
But Alasdair Little-heel was not for losing heart.
Alternately he rowed and baled, until at length he brought
the coble ashore at Loch Follart, immediately below
Dunvegan Castle. Kindly hands received the fugitives at
Dunvegan. The hereditary blacksmith to MacLeod of
MacLeod was summoned from his home at Suardal, a
couple of miles away, to remove the irksome chain that was
fastened round the neck and leg of poor Donald Cam.
Now, the iron chain and block may be seen to this day in
the dungeon at Dunvegan Castle, where they bear
testimony to the courage and endurance of two fugitives who
came over from Applecross in a leaking boat propelled by
improvised oars.
After a short period of recuperation at Dunvegan
Alasdair Little-heel and Donald Cam MacAulay crossed
the Minch, and eventually found their way back to Uig,
via Harris. Extraordinary was the rejoicing in the west
of Lewis on the return of the warriors whom everyone had
given up as dead.
Scarcely a week had John Mor MacKay and John
Morrison, the Brieve, returned to Lewis from Ullapool
when they learnt that their enemies had escaped, and were
at large in Uig once again. Realising that an attack by the
MacAulays was inevitable, they prepared to defend them-
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