#benbecula

Stunning views after an afternoon of climbing Rueval on Benbecula.

Scotland

On 18th November 1982 the South Ford causeway between Benbecula and South Uist was officially opened in a ceremony held in a severe gale.

During a ceremony held in a howling gale in the middle of the road link , National Mod gold-medallist Mairi Macinnes, who was only 18, sang two Gaelic songs at the conclusion of the event after cutting the ceremonial ribbon with a skean dhu.

Alexander Matheson, the then convener of the Western Isles Islands Council (now Comhairle nan Eilean Siar), told the crowd of councillors, officials, contractors, guest and local people that far too often in the past ceremonies such as this had been handled by people from out with the area. He could think of no one better than Mairi Macinnes to carry out the ceremony.

The older pics show the old bridge that was built during WW2 in 1942 to connect the pier at Lochboisdale with the RAF station which is now Benbecula Airport.

The 82 span concrete bridge between Benbecula and South Uist was the first link in the chain of bridges, causeways and car ferries which have brought the Western Isles together.  By the 1980's the bridge's condition was causing serious concern and the then Western Isles Islands Council decided on a major scheme to replace it with a short bridge and causeway, total length almost 1 kilometre plus another 600 metres of new road. Hydraulic studies were done to see what effect the causeway would have on the tides and it was found that a single 15-metre span bridge would be sufficient.

On March 5th 1790, Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite heroine, died.

Flora is still one of the most romanticise figures in Scottish history, much has been written about her helping Charles Edward Stuart after his escape from Culloden when he was the most hunted man in Scotland.

Flora Macdonald was born at Milton, on South Uist, where you can still see the ruins of her childhood home. She grew up in the household of the chief of the Macdonalds of Clanranald, who firmly supported the Jacobite cause. When Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped following the Battle of Culloden in 1746 he went into hiding, depending on supporters to shelter him and hide him from his Hanoverian pursuers led by the Duke of Cumberland. At length, he arrived on the island of Benbecula, where it was decided that he should move on to Skye.

The island was under travel restrictions, and the prince could not take the risk of being spotted. A Jacobite supporter and distant kinsman named Captain Conn O'Neill asked Flora to help Charles escape. Macdonald herself did not support the Jacobite cause, but she was moved by the plight of the Jacobites after the Battle of Culloden, and at length she agreed. She later said that she acted from charity, and would have helped the Duke of Cumberland had she found him in a similar situation.

She obtained permission from Hugh Macdonald, commander of the local militia and her stepfather, to leave Benbecula. She was allowed to take two servants, and a crew of six sailors. Bonnie Prince Charlie was dressed as an Irish spinning maid named Betty Burke, and in that guise he sailed with Flora to Skye on 27th June 1746.

Unlike the scene made famous in the popular ‘Skye Boat Song’, the Prince did not leave baffled foes standing on the shore, and managed to make the crossing unchallenged. From Skye, he made his way at length to Moidart, where he boarded a French ship and escaped to refuge in Europe.

When Flora Macdonald’s role in the escape came to light she was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Though she had committed treason by helping Bonnie Prince Charlie, the public, even staunch Hanoverians, regarded her as a heroic figure, primarily because she was a woman, I have little doubt if it had been a man that helped the Prince in a similar way, he would have been executed.

She was released from the Tower in 1747. She married Allan Macdonald of Kingsburgh in 1750 and settled at Flodigarry on Skye, where she raised a family. In 1774 the couple and their 5 children emigrated to North Carolina. Her husband Alexander joined a regiment of Royal Highland Emigrants in the American War of Independence, where he was captured. He was released in an exchange of prisoners and took up a command in Nova Scotia.

In 1779 Macdonald returned to Scotland, braving an attack by privateers on the way, and settled on Skye where her husband joined her after the war was over. She died in at Kingsburgh in 1790 and was buried in the graveyard beside the 16th-century church at Kilmuir. Tradition says that she was buried in a shroud made from a bed-sheet used by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Given her popularity as a Jacobite heroine, it is not surprising that a large memorial was erected by her grave, which became a popular destination for tourists. The original monument to Macdonald was destroyed in a gale in 1871. It was replaced by a new memorial designed by Alexander Ross in 1880. Ross’s design includes a 28 foot high Celtic Cross of granite, rising above a slender rectangular chest tomb, also of granite. A marble plaque was added in 1922.

The epitaph reads, 'Her name will be mentioned in history and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour’. It was written by Dr Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame, who met her during his famous tour of the Hebrides with James Boswell.

In 1884, just 4 years after the monument was erected, the Skye Boat Song was published, and the popular ballad ensured that Macdonald’s fame would not fade.

Here is a less well known song about not just Flora by Brian McNeill, you can tell through the song that Brian has not got a high opinion of the Prince, something I first learnt in his song Few Gods...but holds Flora in the highest esteem as a strong woman.

Strong Women Rule Us All With Their Tears

There’s a moment of your story That has always haunted me When you set out in yon open boat To help the poor man flee Was Charlie Stuart’s future Already plain to see Did you know he’d be a waster on his days

If you did, I’d give the world to find A single tear you cried From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas You showed us one and all The courage you could call From the tears that would not fall From your eyes

And after thirty years After all that you’d been through us been marriede haven’ been a Just a memory to rue As you watched your husband putting on His coat of scarlet hue To go and fight for German Geordie’s crown

But you never tried to hide behind The dreams of days gone by From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas You showed us one and all The courage you could call From the tears that would not fall From your eyes

And there’s times I think I see you When I find that kind of face When a woman’s independence Has kept a woman’s grace Where confidence and pride Refuse to know their place Or hide behind the easy tricks of beauty

For to me your lights are like the chimes Across the stormy skies From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas You showed us one and all The courage you could call From the tears that would not fall From your eyes

From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas Strong women rule us all With the courage that they call When the tears refuse to fall From their eyes

On 18th November 1982 the South Ford causeway between Benbecula and South Uist is opened in a ceremony held in a severe gale.

On March 5th 1790, Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite heroine, died.

44 years after her famous act of kindness aided Bonnie Prince Charlie escape capture, Flora MacDonald passed away on the Isle of Skye. 

Living as a 24-year old on Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Flora encountered the desperate prince on the run from authorities following his defeat at the Battle of Culloden. 

At first Flora was hesitant to assist, but eventually took pity on the prince and promised to help him escape, setting in motion a chain of events which would see her become a famous name in Scottish history. Disguising the prince as her servant, Betty Burke, she commissioned a boat to take them to Skye where Flora was able to secure passage for the prince which eventually led to his successful arrival back in France.

Two weeks after escorting Charlie “over the see to Skye” Flora was arrested. One of the boatmen, apparently under the threat of torture, cracked and gave up names and a description of Charles dressed as Betty Burke. Flora was taken prisoner though by all accounts was treated very well, she as taken south to Edinburgh onto a ship with other Jacobite prisoners, who were treated a lot worse than our heroine many meeting there end or being transported as indentured slaves.

Flora was locked up in the Tower of London. She later reasoned that her act hadn’t been about taking sides during the rebellion, but rather she wished only to help a man in need. Word of her heroism spread and sympathy for her incarceration didn’t go unnoticed in the English capital.  She received gifts and was allowed visitors, finally she was released under the general indemnity in July 1747.

Three years later Flora married Allan MacDonald and but quiet life thereafter did not await after she travelled to America endured her husband being taken prisoner during the American revolution. The pair spent two years apart before being reunited. 

They travelled back to Scotland but the merchant ship she was sailing on was attacked by privateers and she was injured in the attack after refusing to hide in safety below decks.Once more she survived and lived until the age of 68.

 Legend says she asked to be buried in the same bed sheets the prince slept in during the escape, though some believe this to be nothing more than a myth

Three thousand people attended her funeral where it is said three hundred gallons of whisky was consumed. 

Flora of course was immortalised in the Skye Boat Song.....

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.

Flora MacDonald is buried in the Kilmuir Cemetery on Skye.

The link below takes you to the wedding contract of Flora and her husband.

http://lib1.advocates.org.uk/flora/run.html

The second link offers  “The Truth about Flora MacDonald” The book includes  some great lines including the from when she arrived at the port of Lieth, Edinburgh.

In Leith she was visited by many people of all classes. One Edinburgh lady said to her: “O Miss, what a happy creature are you who had that dear Prince to lull you asleep, and to take such care of you with his hands spread about your head, when you was sleeping! You are surely the happiest woman in the world!”12 Another of her visitors said to her: “I could wipe your shoes with pleasure, and think it my honour so to do, when I reflect that you had the honour to have the Prince for your handmaid. We all envy you greatly.”13 A third visitor, who had to stay on board because the roughness of the sea prevented her from going ashore, asked if she might be allowed to sleep with Flora MacDonald so that she might have it to say that she had the honour of lying in the same bed with that person who had been so happy as to be guardian to her Prince.”