Dunvegan Castle - Fairies and Pipers

Dunvegan Castle © Hugh Taylor

Dunvagan has been a Clan MacLeod stronghold for eight centuries and is still the home of the Clan Chief. Perched high on a rock overlooking Loch Dunvegan, surrounded by the sea on three sides and superb gardens on the other, it is one of the top attractions on the island. It’s an ancient family seat brimming with antiques and heirlooms.

But it’s the famous Fairy Flag that most people come to see. It’s a very old piece of cloth, tattered and faded and made of silk that came from the Middle East sometime between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. According to legend an early MacLeod married a fairy woman who had permission to remain with him for twenty years. When she had to return to Fairyland they parted at the Fairy Bridge 3 miles from the castle. McLeod’s wife gave him a flag and told him that it would save the clan in times of danger if it were waved.

The MacLeod Chiefs passionately believe that story.  Sir Reginald, the 27th chief, when confronted with a rational and scientific explanation of the flag’s origins replied  ‘ I know that it was given to my ancestor by the fairies’. 

Also attributed to fairies was the gift to the first MacCrimmon enabling him to play the finest music in the world. Hereditary pipers to the Chief of MacLeod they were granted land at Borreraig, across the Loch, where they established their famous piping school. All that now remains are the bagpipes on display.

Over The Sea to Skye