Narrative of the plundering, pillaging, burning, etc. of the Islands of Rasay and Rona, taken from the Handwriting of young Rasay

XAs soon as Lord Loudoun, &cetc; came to [] 872 (872)
to the Isle of Sky after he was
chased out of Southerland he sent
a DetatchmentDetachment of MacLeod’s men and
of CaptCaptain MacLeod of Giunneas men
to carry off all the boats in Rasay
to the Head Quarters at Kenloch-
nidale, which they executed, except-
ing one small one that was left to
young Rasay by Sir AlexrAlexander MacDo-
naldsMacDonald's intercession with Lord Loudoun,
and another that CaptCaptain Malcolm
MacLeod hid in a house which serv-
ed to bring him to the main landmainland,
and was only away for Inverness
the very night, that a second party
came from Loudoun to apprehend
him. Loudoun was not long at
Kenlochnidale when one ✝ CaptCaptain Hay
Commander of a tender came to the
Island of Rona and slaughter’dslaughtered Cows
there and plundered two or three
small villages in the north end of
Rasay before the battle of Culoden
and made off without any more da-
mage, he [Lord Loudoun] also kept
a party of his soldiers in Rasay all
the time he lay in Kenlochnidale,
but did no great harm till after the
battle of Cullodin, only disarmed six
of the men that came home before the rest, 873 (873)
rest, and RobedRobbed them of their plaids.
about the fiftenthfifteenth or sixteenth of
mayMay one CaptCaptain ✝ Ferguson Command-
er of a Sloop of war came to Ra-
say accompanyedaccompanied by some tenders,
he ordered one LieutennantLieutenant Dal-
rumple ashore to execute his ven-
geance against the Island , who
brunt1 Rasay’s good house to ashes
as also the whole X houses upon the
Island, excepting two small vil-
lages that escaped their sight with
all the poor people’s furniture; the
number of the houses brunt, accor-
ding to a strick accompt taken of
them exceeded three hundred, they
likwiselikewise found all Rasay’s furni-
ture and silver plate hid in a
Cave about a Quarter of a mile
from the house betrayed by a small
boy belonging to the Island. Lieu-
tennantLieutenant Dalrumple ordered his
SailersSailors, Marines &and Campbell mil-
tia to march in three bodysbodies throwthrough
the Island two near the Shores
and the third along the Hill, they
gathered what Cattle was in their
way, Cows and horses, Sheep and Goats, 874 (874)
Goats, and slaughtered numbers of
all kinds, and left many of them
dead both in the Shores and hill,
the poeple of the Island were
then pretty quiet only that they
were frequently importuned to
Surrender their arms which they
at last did, because they were
much confined being in an Isl-
and of no great extent, and the
poeplepeople but few in number to
stand out, till about the beginning
of July General Campbell and
CaptCaptain Scot as soon as they found
the Certainty that the Prince
left the long Island, came first to
the Island of Rona in quest of
him, where some of their men
ravished a poor Girl that was blind
and most unmercifully lashed with
Cords two men one of which soon
after dyeddied, and the other Malcolm
MacLeod has not recovered not till
this day. afterwards they came to
Rasay, where they gathered every
man, wife and Child they could find, 875 (875)
find, and what Cattle of all kinds
was left them by Mr Ferguson, in
order to trace out the Prince they
swore all the poeplepeople if they knew
what came of the Prince but to
no purpose as they really knew
nothing about him, they likewise
lash’dlashed most unmercyfullyunmercifully a man
Donald ✝ Nicolson (since recovered)
they found running away, that
was Servant to CaptCaptain Malcolm
MacLeod, who that day left them
just by speed of foot, some of their
poeplepeople, I know not their names,
Ravished two women, the one cal-
led Christian Montgomery and the
other Maron MacLeod, who walks
upon stilts, this visit was infinitlyinfinitely
worse than their first, as they slaugh-
tered many more of their Cattle
of all kinds excepting horses, than
they at first did, they so RobedRobbed the
whole inhabitants both of thiertheir bed
X closeclothes and even their body closeclothes
that I am certain, there was not
the value of two shillings sterling
of X closeclothes of any kind left to any
of the poor familysfamilies upon the Island, from that 876 (876)
that day which was about the
sixteenth or seventeenth of July
the poor poeplepeople were daily har-
rassed and trod upon till ever
the Independent CompanysCompanies were
broke which was in the midlemiddle of
SeptrSeptember, As two CompanysCompanies of the
MacLeods2 Commanded by ✝ MacLeod
of Taliskar and X MacLeod of Wa-
terstene, were stationed in the
adjacent parts of Sky to Rasay
they daily made incursion there
and were destroying any poor
remainder that was left that they
could lay hold on but as to the
behaveourbehaviour of these poeplepeople to
this Island I refer to another
time. the exact accompt of
the damages sustained in Rasay
as nearly calculated as possible
and which may be depended upon,
is as follows, the number of the
Cows slaughtered amounted in
all to upwards of two houndredhundred
and eighty the sheep upwards of
seven hundred, the Horses shot for pleasure
877 (877)
pleasure did not exceed a Score,
and the boats destroyed during
these troubles were thirty two in
number small and Great, &and the
houses burntburned exceeded three hun-
dred, the whole amount of the
articles above with their furniture,
✝CloseClothes, and all other necessarysnecessaries lost,
according to an exact Calcula-
tion as made as the one of them-
selves would sell to the other
exceeded twenty four thousand
merks3 Scots, besides all this, Ra-
say himself including his house,
his house furniture Cattle, and o-
ther things values his loss above
fifteen hundred pounds sterling
more, besides the poor poeple
are at as much loss again, by
the want entirlyentirely of the two last
Year’s crop, thothough the Island is of
some extent, ten miles long,
three broad in some places two
in other places and not even a
mile in some parts, yet the above
losses was very great and quite
ruin’druined many of the poeplepeople Consid-
ering that the number of familysfamilies in 878 (878)
in it was only betwixt eighty
and ✝ nintyninety and ytthat the tennanttenant
who had three or four Cows
was thought to be able to pay
his rents, this number severals
of them did not exceed even
before they suffered any losses.

Besides this the rest of
RasaysRasay's estate in Sky, tho’though it did
not suffer so much by slaugh-
tering of Cattle and burning
of houses, yet the dammagedamage
was very great, as the Inhabi-
tants deserted the lands and fled
to their NighboursNeighbours for Shelter and
left the lands waste, which are
so to this day.