MacCrimmon s Lament is one of the most haunting bagpipe tunes of Scotland.
They tell me it s the lament most often played at the graveside of a piper who s passed on.
Of course, the story Donald Ban MacCrimmon s end is poignant,
but today I m going to tell you why the story is deeper and sadder still,
as I take you to a graveyard and two cairns: one in the Cairngorms
and the other on the Isle of Skye. So if you re interested in the people,
places and events in Scottish history, then click the subscribe
button at the bottom right of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story
I ve given hints of today s story in a couple of videos I ve made before.
Once as I told you about the funeral of Rob Roy and once in my video about The Jacobite Road.
People have asked me to say more about this story.
but I didn t want to do it till I could take you to the Isle of Skye,
although there s somewhere else we have to go first.
This is the graveyard at Moy, and I m here to visit the grave
of a Jacobite who s wit and cunning may have saved Bonnie Prince Charlie s skin
in the weeks before the Drumossie Moor showdown in April 1746.
Who knows but that this man is the reason the Battle of Culloden took place at all.
This is the grave of Donald Fraser. He was a blacksmith to Ann MacIntosh,
the lady of Moy hall. At the time of the 45 uprising
her husband was away serving as a captain in the Hanovarian forces.
SHE was a staunch Jacobite, who in her husband s absence,
raised a regiment from his tenants for Bonnie Prince Charlie,
which is why she was known as Colonel Anne.
On 16th February 1646, as the Jacobites
were making their weary way north from Derby Bonnie Prince Chalrie arrived at Moy Hall nearby
with a small bodyguard of Camerons and MacDonalds.
He was welcomed with warm hospitality by Colonel Annne
but as the house slept word came from Inverness. A servant who waited on the government officer s
table sent his teenage son running across the moor
to warn the folks at Moy that Lord Loudoun and a force of 1500 men
were on their way for a surprise night attack. Colonel Anne had to act fast.
She put her trust in Donald Fraser. Now this fine gravestone might seem
grand for a blacksmith who died in 1746. But it was donated by grateful Jacobites from
Italy in 1903.
You see Donald Fraser didn t die that night. Not only did he survive the night, he survived
Culloden and lived out life until 1804. The Lament is not for him.
A mile and a half north of here, on the modern A9, you turn off
the main road to join the old military road built by General Wade to subdue the Jacobites.
It was to do just that, that 1500 Hanovarian troops were coming along this road towards Moy,
with the advance guard under the command of Norman MacLeod 19th Chief of Clan MacLeod.
The story of why the MacLeods were on the government side is a tale for another day,
but arrayed against them were Donald Fraser and four other guys.
This cairn commemorates the spot
Along with the 19th Chief of Clan MacLeod in the vanguard was, of course, his piper
Donald Ban MacCrimmon MaCrimmons had been the
pipers to the chiefs of clan MacLeod since back in the time of Alasdair Crotach,
the 8th humpbacked chief The 8th humpbacked chief?
Actually that should be the humpbacked 8th chief otherwise you d think that the MacLeods were
full of hunchbacks and at least eight of them were chiefs
and to my knowledge It doesn t matter
Now there s a lot of legend surrounding Donald Ban MacCrimmon.
Some say he was captured earlier in the campaign at Inverurie, but so revered was he
that the Jacobite pipers refused to play until he was released.
More poignantly, before he set off with his chief
he is reputed to have written the tune MacCrimmon
s lament Cha till,
cha till, cha till, MacCruimein
MacCrimmon s never coming back
On the night Donald Fraser and his four companions had hidden themselves in
peat stacks either side of the road. When they saw the irregular government
forces approaching Fraser fired and shouted: Advance Camerons! Advance Frasers! C mon lads!
He and his four pals ran from peat stack to peat stack shouting various clan slogans,
firing randomly and giving the impression that it was the whole Jacobite army that
was coming down on the MacLeod advance guard. The government forces turned tail and fled in
the face of the handful of Jacobites. Loudoun couldn t get the few of his men
that remained under control in what has become known as The Rout of Moy.
Most of the injuries were caused by men knocking each other over in their haste to flee
but apparently what sparked the rout was that the random firing
cut down the man at the front of the government column marching
next to his clan chief He was the only man killed
Cha till, cha till,
cha till MacCrimmon . MacCrimmon never returned.
Was Donald Ban MacCrimmon really released by Jacobites after capture
or was it that it was his brother who was captured at Inverurie.
Did he really write the lament predicting his own death?
or was it what his girlfriend sung it to him as he left , and would that have upset his wife?
Was it that his brother wrote the lament after his death?
Irrespective of where history blends into legend the fact of the legend tells us just how highly
regarded pipers were in Highland Scotland, and even moreso the MacCrimmons.
No doubt that s why MacCrimmon s lament is so often played at the graveside of a piper.
The chief of Clan MacLeod still lives here in Dunvegan Castle behind me.
They tell me it s the longest inhabited castle in Scotland.
But what of the MacCrimmons? Pipers not only to the chiefs
of Clan MacLeod, but a national institution You see theirs was the famous and historic piping
college just across Loch Dunvegan at Borreraig. Pipers were sent from far and wide to apprentice
to the MacCrimmons. Just before we head over there
I was thinking about doing a video about the history of bagpipes. Would that be of interest?
Do you even like bagpipes? Let me know in the comments section
The area round here would have known many MacCrimmons.
They would have farmed taks of land and held prestigious positions
as hereditary pipers of clan MacLeod. But in 1770, 24 years after the death of Donald
Ban, MacLeod of Macleod ended the leases here and after ten generations the MacCrimmons
were evicted. The time of the sheep
had come and not a bagpiper amongst them. Some MacCrimmons joined the military, some
sailed off to the new world Donald Ruig MacCrimmon set sail
and settled in what s now North Carolina. The rebellion in America saw him fight for
the loyalist side before heading to Nova Scotia. In 1790 the Highland Society of London paid for
MacCrimmon, his wife and their children to come back across the Atlantic,
suggesting that he start a piping school in Fort Augustus
but that project was never followed through. When he died they say 200 tunes were lost,
as he refused to pass on the piping tradition to his children,
apparently because of his disgust at the evictions of 1770.
By the late 19th Century there were two MacCrimmon families left in the area.
The heads of those households were listed as a tailor and a crofter.
In 1883 a 48 year old crofter from Borreraig here when asked
said that he had heard of the legendary piping family of MacCrimmons
but he couldn t personally recall any MacCrimmons who were pipers.
There were no Pipers in Glendale.
He said : There is a decendent of the MacCrimmons still living in Borroraig,
but he s just like ourselves, running north and south for subsistence for our families.
In 1942 a MacCrimmon did once more play in the Great Hall at Dunvegan Castle.
Malcolm MacCrimmon from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada.
Thirty years later, when John MacLeod of MacLeod, 29th chief of Clan MacLeod, was
viting Calgary, Alberta, he formally made that
Malcolm MacCrimmon's son, Iain Norman MacCrimmon, hereditary piper to the Chief of Clan MacLeod.
but the sheep are still here
and it seems most of the people round about are English.
Now I ve got nothing but love for our English or Canadian cousins
but there s still something sad about the fact that all there s left
here of the MacCrimmons is a memorial cairn.
When a piper is lost in battle it s a reason for mourning.
When a heritage is lost through clearance, the lament is sadder still.
I ve got some videos telling you about what
was going on in those years that followed here on Skye
and there s one coming up on screen now. In the meantime