18 A HUNDEED YEAKS 



owned by his brother-in-law, who had married Alexander 

 the sixth of Kintail's daughter. Allan Macleod of 

 Gairloch married as his second wife a daughter of Macleod 

 of the Lews. The Lews Macleods were also otherwise 

 nearly connected with Allan of Gairloch. Well, it seems 

 that two brothers of Macleod of the Lews had sworn 

 an oath that no one with a drop of Mackenzie blood in 

 him should ever succeed to Gairloch, and crossing from 

 the Lews they landed at Gairloch. Allan Macleod, 

 perhaps from having heard some whispers of the ideas 

 of his relatives, had placed his family for safety on a 

 small crannog or artificial island stronghold in Loch 

 Tollie, along which the road from Gairloch to Poole we 

 runs, which must have been an uncomfortable residence 

 for a wife with her own young daughter and her three 

 stepsons. 



It seems that these Macleods, the day after their 

 landing, got word of the fact that Allan had left the 

 island that morning, and had gone to fish on the Ewe. 

 They found him asleep on the river-bank at Cnoc na 

 michomhairle (the Mound or Knoll of Bad Advice), and 

 at once made him *' short by the head,'" which was 

 the term then in use for beheading. Retracing their 

 steps to the island, they managed to get ferried across to 

 it, and, informing the unfortunate widow of what they 

 had done to her husband, they tore the two boys from 

 her knees — the third boy was fortunately absent — 

 carried them along to a small glen through which the 

 Poole we road now passes, and at a spot called Meall 

 bhadaidh na Thaisg (the Rock of the Place of Burial) 

 stabbed them both to the heart with their dirks. Their 



