User:MauraWen/Trumpan

Trumpan (Trumpan) is a hamlet located on the Vaternish peninsula in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish council area of the Highland. The village is famous for a particularly brutal incident in 1578, when the Clan MacDonald of Uist set fire to the Trumpan church while hundreds of parishoners of Clan MacLeod were inside. The ruined church xxx

Geography
"The ruin of Trumpan Church stands on a site overlooking the sea at Trumpan. This is as far as the public road goes along the west side of the Waternish Peninsula, though it is still nearly four miles short of the peninsula's tip at Waternish Point. Trumpan was once a thriving medieval township, and this simple rectangular church served as its focal point."

History
"Trumpan Church has never been satisfactorily dated, but it could easily have stood here as far back as the 1300s. When in use it was known to its Gaelic-speaking congregation as Cille Chonain, or St Conan's Church. Today the ruin stands surrounded by its graveyard, home to a range of memorials covering a considerable period of time. Perhaps the most striking grave marker is laid at the east end of the church and is decorated with the carving of a long claymore or Highland sword surrounded by animals and plants." Trumpan church, which is now a ruin, was the focus of a particularly brutal incident in 1578, when the Clan MacDonald of Uist travelled to Trumpan in eight boats and, under cover of a thick mist, burnt alive all the worshipping church-goers, with only one member managing to escape. This led to instant retribution by Clan MacLeod who killed all the invaders, before they had time to flee the island. This skirmish is known as the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke.

"The township of Trumpan was never re-established, and the church has remained a ruin, albeit one with some deeply unpleasant memories of one of the more barbarous episodes in Scotland's history."

Trumpan churchyard is the burial ground of Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange whose husband had her kidnapped and incarcerated on various Hebridean islands.