WARFARE AND WEAPONS.
Up to the middle of the seventeenth century Gairloch seems to have been
a continual battlefield. As to Kenlochewe, it was so often ravaged, and
its population so frequently decimated, that one is surprised to find
anything left of it!
Among the MacBeaths, M'Leods, Macdonalds, and Mackenzies (assisted by
MacRaes), Gairloch was a veritable bone of contention; and for some time
after the fierce struggles among the warriors of these clans or tribes
had ceased it was still a prey to the raids of the Lochaber
cattle-lifters.
What wonder that the Highlander had actually to sleep in his war-paint!
Several weapons of warfare have been mentioned incidentally in Part I.,
viz., the dirk of Hector Roy, the battle-axe of Big Duncan, the bows and
arrows of several of the MacRae archers, and the shotgun of Alastair
Buidhe Mackay. The broadsword and targe of the Highlanders were
mentioned by Tacitus, and continued to be their arms when in battle
array until the eighteenth century. The broadsword is often called the
claymore or big sword; it was two-edged. The targe was a round shield of
wood covered with leather. Bows and arrows were used against enemies at
a distance, and the battle-axe was a favourite and deadly weapon at
close quarters. The dirk was mostly used in personal encounters, or when
heavier weapons were not at hand. All these weapons were common among
Gairloch warriors, except the gun, which was rare here, and in most
parts of the Highlands. Bows were made, it is said, of ash; and the
present ash trees at Ardlair, and other places hereabouts, are supposed
to have sprung from old trees grown long ago on purpose to supply bows.
After the "Forty-five" the clan system faded away, and it is not likely,
indeed not possible, that we shall ever again see the able-bodied men of
a clan gathered under their chief in battle array.
The immediate substitute for the old system was the raising by several
Highland chiefs of regiments of their clansmen as part of the regular
army of Great Britain. Lord Seaforth raised the regiment known as the
78th Highlanders in 1793; and, as we have seen, John, second son of Sir
Alexander Mackenzie, tenth laird of Gairloch, gathered from Gairloch a
company for that regiment, of which he became captain.
All the same, enlisting in the army was never popular in Gairloch; and,
as a rule, recruits could be procured only by the detestable means of
the pressgang, which was also used for obtaining sailors for the navy.
Dr Mackenzie, writing of the days of his father, Sir Hector Mackenzie,
says:--"One of my father's amphibious crofters disappeared, leaving his
wife and family to the care of Providence, without a clue to his being
dead or alive, for some five years. One day my father, superintending
some job near the bay, noticed a man coming towards him with a true
sailor-like roll. Intimate with the cut of every man on the estate, says
he, 'Surely that is dead Donald M'Lean's walk;' and, on coming near, it
certainly was Donald himself, in naval attire. 'Halloa, Donald!' says
he, 'where on earth are you from?' speaking, as he always did to his
people, in Gaelic. Donald pulled up, and saluting, replied in two words,
also in Gaelic, 'Bho Iutharn,' the English of which is simply 'From
hell.' The service on board a man-of-war was then really infernal,
though Donald, who had been grabbed by a press-gang, had survived five
years of it, and found his widow and children glad to see him again."
For other stories connected with the press-gang system see Part II.,
chap. xxv. Very few recruits are in the present day forthcoming from
Gairloch for the army, navy, or militia.
The Volunteer corps, which is the "I" Company of the Ross Highland Rifle
Volunteers, is well supported, and is generally over its authorised
strength. It has three pipers, and the rank and file comprise a number
of fine men.
Though perhaps not exactly within the subject of this chapter, the
following account given by James Mackenzie of almost the first guns
brought to Gairloch may be added:--
It was about 1823 that a large ship was destroyed by fire at Ullapool.
Part of her cargo was saved. Besides some casks of fish-hooks, a number
of guns were taken out of the burning ship. There was a man then living
at Mellon Udrigil in Gairloch named Finlay Fraser; he had come as a
foxhunter from Beauly; he got seven of the guns out of the ship. It is
said that one of these guns of more than sixty years ago was recently to
be seen preserved as a curiosity in the farmhouse of Tollie. Finlay
carried on illicit distillation of whisky in a large cave on the
Greenstone point. He used to steep barley in whisky, and spread it on
the ground in front of a sort of screen, called in Gaelic "skar," behind
which he lay in wait with one of his guns until wild geese and other
birds came to eat the barley, which soon rendered them "drunk and
incapable," when Finlay got easy pot-shots at them. Though the guns
obtained from this ship were the first in general use in Gairloch, it is
certain that guns had occasionally been brought into the parish long
before.
[Illustration: ANTIQUITY NO. 6. STONE CELT FOUND AT COVE.
SCALE--HALF TRUE SIZE.]