page_title: Eigg
section_title: Massacre and pillage
hierarchical_section_title: Eigg / History / Clan Ranald / Massacre and pillage
caption_attribution_description: English: Uamh Fhraing Massacre Cave. The small entrance to the cave where around 400 MacDonalds are said to have been killed in 1577. They were hiding in the cave from a MacLeod raid, and were suffocated when the MacLeods tried to smoke them out.
context_page_description: Eigg is one of the Small Isles, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It lies to the south of the Isle of Skye and to the north of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Eigg is 9 kilometres long from north to south, and 5 km east to west. With an area of 12 sq mi, it is the second largest of the Small Isles after Rùm. Eigg generates virtually all of its electricity using renewable energy.
context_section_description: In 1577, according to Clan Ranald tradition, a group of MacLeods were being hosted on Eigg, when they became over-amorous towards local women. As a result, the local men rounded the MacLeods up, and cast them adrift in the Minch, until they were rescued by MacLeods from elsewhere. Wanting revenge, a group of MacLeods landed on Eigg, but had been spotted by the islanders, who decided to hide in an obscure cave called the Cave of Frances (Scottish Gaelic: Uamh Fhraing) located on the south coast; the entrance to the cave is tiny, and was obscured by moss, undergrowth, and a small waterfall.
  The traditions go on to say that the MacLeods conducted a thorough but fruitless search for the inhabitants, but after 3–5 days, just as the MacLeods were leaving, they saw someone leave the cave, and were able to follow their footprints to the entrance. The MacLeods re-directed the water, piled thatch and roof timbers at the cave entrance, and set fire to it; water dampened the flames, so that the cave was filled with smoke, asphyxiating everyone inside. 395 people had been inside; only one inhabitant of Eigg survived, an old woman, who had not sought refuge in the cave.
  Serious doubts remain about the veracity of the tale; in later times a minister of Eigg stated "the less I enquired into its history ... the more I was likely to feel I knew something about it". Nonetheless, human remains in the cave have been reported over the centuries; though most of the remains have since been removed and buried elsewhere, natural disturbances in the soil occasionally uncover further remains.
  Clan Ranald had aided the MacDonalds in a longstanding feud against the MacLeans of Duart concerning the Rhinns of Islay. In 1588, some of the remains of the Spanish Armada found refuge with the MacLeans; Lachlan, the MacLean leader, demanded that they supply soldiers in return, which he used to launch an attack against the MacDonalds. After initial failures, Lachlan chose to attack the Small Isles, as a softer, weakly defended target, instead; Eigg was burnt and pillaged. Lachlan was imprisoned in Edinburgh by the king for this, but he escaped, and faced no further punishment.
caption: The entrance from a short distance away
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