Bloody Bay and the Macleods
BLOODY BAY AND THE MACLEODS The battle of Bloody Bay was fought on some date between 1481 and 1485,1 say c.1483, and saw the death of William MacLeod of Harris2 (who had been chief of the Siol Tormoid since the death of his father, Ian Borb, 1463x1469, say c.1466),3 who was succeeded by his son, Alasdair Crotach (who did not die until 1546/7).4 With regard to the identity and genealogy of the combatants at Bloody Bay there is no problem with the Harris MacLeods but there is one with the Lewis MacLeods, which is the concern of the second part of this paper. Citing “Seanachie’s Account of the Clan Maclean (1838), p.24,” which states that the battle “was fought off Barrayraig near Tobermory in Mull, at a place ever since known by the name of Ba ’na falla, or the Bloody Bay”, R. W. Munro wrote “The name Bloody Bay, even in Gaelic, sounds somewhat artificial, and I wonder if anyone has heard it or any other name used by native Gaelic speakers in Mull or elsewhere for the sea-fight”.5 The requested “any other name” for the battle is found in MacLeod tradition. The chapter on the MacLeods of that ilk (i.e. of Harris) in Douglas’s Baronage ends its account of “XI. WILLIAM” with:6 “ This William, by order of king James III. went to the aſſiſtance of John earl of Roſs against his natural ſon, and loſt his life in a naval engagement in Cammiſteraig, or Bloody Bay, in the Sound of Mull, and was ſucceeded by his only ſon, XII.
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