Trumpan and Ardmore Point

This area is a hammer head of land on the western side of the Waternish peninsula. It is steeped in history.

Trumpan church is a ruin and its graveyard contains, amongst other interesting relics, a stone with a hole in known as the "Trial Stone." The accused would be blindfolded and required to put their finger through the hole at the first attempt. If they succeeded they were innocent. If not.....

However, another legend has it that the stone is the "Heaven Stone." The plot is as before, but if you got your finger in the hole first time you were destined to go straight to heaven.

In 1578 a mighty battle and early war crime took place here. The Macdonalds from Uist sailed into the bay and caught the locals at their worship in the church, which they promptly barricaded shut and set on fire. Nobody escaped apart from a girl who raised the alarm.

The MacLeods of Dunvegan were so incensed that, for once, they forsook relieving tourists of their cash at Dunvegan Castle and turned out in force armed with, amongst other things, the Fairy Flag. This was a good luck token about which more may be learned if you do the Dunvegan Castle tour.

They captured the MacDonald ships and virtually wiped out the MacDonalds (which may explain why the hamburger phenomenon has yet to reach Skye. It may also explain the ungentlemanly behaviour at the church. I mean, if all you have got under your kilt is a quarter pounder the resultant inferiority complex might well give rise to a desire to cheat.)

The corpses were assembled at the base of a turf wall or dyke and the wall was then upset to bury the bodies. The battle is known as "The Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke."

On the seaward side of the hammerhead of land is a magnificent double rock arch, but whether it is possible to access it today I know not. The last time I went down there the farm was derelict. Since then it has risen from its ashes and is now a working farm again. If you wish to explore, it would be as well to ask at the farm.


Trumpan Church with Dunvegan Head in the background	Looking towards the (at that time) ruined farm and the hammer head of land

Trumpan Church and the trial/heaven stone	The hole, a close up of the previous shot

The double arch near Ardmore Point	No guide to Skye would be complete without a wee hairy coo, would it?

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