The Macdonalds were secretly sympathetic towards the Jacobites but Flora hesitated and then agreed to help

Scotland, a tough country in its religion and climate, has never been easy on women. Worn by men, the kilt signifies an androgynous garment but the nation itself has always been predominantly masculine. Not that long ago, women were no more than appendages of father, uncle, brother, husband, or son. Only the chosen few, counted on the fingers of one hand, stood out from the crowd.

They were 11th Century Margaret, Queen of Scotland, saintly and anodyne, and Mary Queen of Scots, to some an idiot for choosing bad men and not heeding her advisors’ warning to avoid sailing to England for asylum. There were others, but possibly the most trivialised and commercialised is Flora Macdonald who, on her mother’s side was related to the Macdonalds of Largie.

To confess to being related to Flora, is to invite mirth. “No, you’re not! Not her,” is the usual comment. “That schmaltzy, tartan-clad woman depicted on the lids of shortbread tins! You’re having me on! You can’t be!” Well, yes, I am.

Refuge

Born in 1722, Flora was the daughter of Ranald Macdonald of Milton, South Uist in the Outer Hebrides and Marion, daughter of Angus Macdonald. Flora’s father died when she was a child and the clan chief, Macdonald of Clanranald, her father’s cousin, brought her up.

In June 1746, when she was 24 and living on Benbecula, another island in the Outer Hebrides, Bonnie Prince Charlie, after the Battle of Culloden, took refuge there. The Prince’s companion, Captain Con O’Neill from County Antrim in Ireland and Flora’s cousin, asked her for help.

The Hanoverians controlled the island although they used the local militia to keep order. The situation was not unlike Nazi-occupied France or Holland during the Second World War with an active underground organisation and collaborators working for the occupiers.

The Macdonalds were secretly sympathetic towards the Jacobites but Flora hesitated and then agreed to help. The commander of the local militia was her step-father, Hugh Macdonald, who gave a pass to the mainland for herself, a man-servant, and an Irish spinning maid (Betty Burke), who was the disguised Prince, and a boat crew of six. They departed for Skye on June 28. Their voyage is described in the celebrated Skye Boat Song:

Speed bonny boat, like a bird on the wing Onward the sailors cry. Carry the lad that’s born to be king Over the sea to Skye. Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar, Thundercloud rend the air, Baffled our foes stand by the shore Follow they will not dare. Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep, Ocean’s a royal bed,

Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep Watch by your weary head.

Many’s the lad fought on that day, Well the Claymore could wield,

When the night came, silently lay Dead on Culloden’s field.

Burned are their homes, exile and death Scatter the loyal men,

Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath Charlie will come again.

Arrested

When they arrived on Skye, Flora hid the prince among the rocks by the shore, while she searched for help. They proceeded to Portree, the main town of the island and then to the isle of Raasay. But the crewmen gossiped about Flora’s passenger and she was arrested, taken to London, imprisoned in the Tower but released the following year.

Charles had better luck and departed Scotland from Lochaber on L’Heureux, a French frigate, and arrived in France that September. On November 6 1750, aged 28, Flora married Allan Macdonald, an army captain. Settling on Skye they became parents to five sons and two daughters, and in 1772 they moved to the Macdonald family estate at Kingsburgh, Skye.

While the 18th Century lexicographer, Samuel Johnson and his diarist sidekick, James Boswell, were conducting their Highland tour, they met the Macdonalds in 1773.

“She is a woman of soft features, gentle manners, kind soul and elegant presence,” wrote Johnson of Flora. He also paid her the tribute, immortalised on her memorial at Kilmuir: “Hers is a name that will be mentioned in history and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.”

Shortly after this meeting, Flora stayed at Largie at the old castle, no more than a fortified house situated at the village of Rhunahaorine, a mile or two north of the present Largie. Today, only one wall of the old building stands.

Flora had two brothers, Angus and Ranald, who liked shooting. One day they went to Cara for a day’s sport, and Ranald was shot. By all accounts it was an accident, but the Broonie can be accused here, if not of malevolence, then of gross negligence.

In 1774 Allan and Flora emigrated to North Carolina. Captain Macdonald served the British Government in 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants). Legend has it that in February 1776 Flora rallied the Loyalists, supported by her husband, to advance to Moore’s Creek Bridge, where they met with defeat.

Imprisoned

Macdonald was captured and imprisoned for two years until 1777. Thereafter he moved to Fort Edward in Windsor, Nova Scotia and took command of 84th Regiment of Foot, 2nd Battalion. After her husband was jailed, Flora went into hiding while the American Patriots ravaged her plantation and grabbed her possessions. She re-united with her husband in the Fall of 1778 at Fort Edward. The following year Flora returned to Scotland.

On reaching Skye she stayed with relatives. Allan returned in 1784 and regained his estate in Kingsburgh. Flora died there in 1790 aged 68.

The Stuarts, both Old and Young Pretender, particularly the latter, have not gone down well in history. Quintessentially, Prince Charles Edward Stuart was a romantic figure and a heroic failure.

With a Polish mother, Maria Sobieska, and having spent all of his childhood and early youth in Italy, he was virtually a foreigner and not a suitable leader for the Scottish Highlanders. Failing to take the Crown of Scotland (and England), he slunk back to the Continent and lived a dissolute life. More on Monday.