Qualla: Trumpan Church

Trumpan Church: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Hogg, CC BY-SA 2.0. One girl survived. She was mortally wounded, but she lived long enough to raise the alarm. In 1578, a raiding party of MacDonalds from South Uist sailed to the Waternish peninsula on the Isle of Skye, found the local MacLeod congregation gathered for Sunday worship inside Trumpan Church, barred the doors, and set the building on fire. Every person inside perished except that single girl, who managed to escape through a window or gap in the wall. Her warning reached the MacLeod chief at Dunvegan Castle. What followed was not justice in any modern sense. It was the next turn in a cycle of retaliatory violence between two clans that had been killing each other's people for years.

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Image: Graham Hogg | CC BY-SA 2.0

Trumpan Church: Cille Conain

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Andrews, CC BY-SA 2.0. Trumpan Church -- also known by its Gaelic name Cille Conain -- is a 13th-century structure on the northern end of the Waternish peninsula, overlooking Ardmore Bay on Skye's west coast. The rectangular building measures approximately fifteen metres by seven metres. Its north wall...

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Image: Chris Andrews | CC BY-SA 2.0

Trumpan Church: The Burning

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Allan, CC BY-SA 2.0. The MacDonalds' attack on Trumpan Church was not unprovoked. It was retaliation for the massacre of MacDonalds on the Isle of Eigg the previous year, when MacLeods had suffocated hundreds of people in the Cave of Frances by lighting a fire at the cave's entrance. The Eigg massacr...

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Image: John Allan | CC BY-SA 2.0

Trumpan Church: The Spoiling of the Dyke

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit sparkione, CC BY-SA 2.0. The MacDonalds had expected to raid and withdraw before any response could reach them. The tide betrayed them. As the MacLeod force arrived at Ardmore Bay, the receding water had left the MacDonald galleys beached. The raiders could not escape. The battle that followed was short ...

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Image: sparkione | CC BY-SA 2.0