MacIain's Cave

This rugged but beautiful section of Ardnamur- chan's north shore hides a grim secret. A steep scramble down from roughly half way along the track which joins Ockle to Eilagadale leads to a shingle beach from which, as long as the tide isn't high, it is possible to reach MacIain's Cave.

Named after the clan which, for over three hundred years, owned all the lands of Ardnamurchan and was closely related to the MacDonalds, the Lords of the Isles, the cave is the site of a grim find: piles of human bones.

By 1624 the MacIains had lost all their lands and power and, outlawed and harried by their enemies, had taken to piracy, waylaying ships as they passed Ardnamurchan. Their women, children and old people led a miserable existence - and it was a group of these which their enemies, the Campbells, led by footprints the MacIains had left in the snow, cornered in this cave.

The story is that the Campbells collected wood and laid it at the entrance - no more than two small gaps which lead into the large, shingle-floored chamber. Setting fire to it, they stood outside to prevent anyone escaping.

Sitting around the entrance to the cave, listening to the MacIains' screams, the Campbells would have looked out across the Minch towards the Island of Eigg. The MacIains should have learnt from history: a similar massacre was perpetrated in a cave on Eigg in 1577, when 395 MacDonalds were suffocated by a Macleod raiding party.