This is how Dòmhnall Eàirdsidh Dòmhnallach of North Uist told the story — a man who had worked for many years at the School of Scottish Studies — of an affair he had researched in depth. He told it on Coinneach’s Programme on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal:
“It was in eighteen hundred and forty-nine — that was the year — that Lord MacDonald of Sleat sent a letter to Hugh of Mogastad, saying that he had heard that one of his sons, Dòmhnall Dòmhnallach, was a capable young man, and asking whether he would like to be factor in North Uist. At that time, most of the land in North Uist belonged to Lord MacDonald.
Dòmhnall Dòmhnallach was very pleased to accept this. He went to Uist, and his main task was collecting rents in North Uist. He lived in Lochboisdale House — which was only, perhaps, a few miles from Balranald.
At the same time, it happened that Lord MacDonald’s estate was in serious financial difficulty, with debts and suchlike. This was just after the potato famine year — that had happened two or three years earlier — and the kelp industry had collapsed at the same time.
The estate was therefore put into the hands of what some call trustees — my friend Uilleam MacMhathain used to call them “kilodders” — and a man named Patrick Cooper was placed at their head. He was a lawyer from the Aberdeen area, a very wealthy man by all accounts, and he was constantly travelling back and forth between Uist, Skye and the mainland.
Now both he and Dòmhnall Dòmhnallach, son of the Laird of Mogastad, fell deeply in love with Seasaidh, daughter of James Ruadh of Balranald — James Thomas MacDonald, as he was known in English. Both men were courting her.
Eventually Cooper managed to have Dòmhnall Dòmhnallach removed from his position. Dòmhnall was what they called a “lesser factor”. That didn’t mean he was lesser as a person at all, but rather that the main factor on Uist at the time was, in fact, Seasaidh’s own father, James Ruadh of Balranald. Dòmhnall was seen as a supporting official.
In any case, a letter arrived from Cooper to Dòmhnall in the autumn of that same year telling him that Cooper himself would henceforth collect the rents in North Uist, and that this would save the Lord a great deal of money.
As far as we can tell, Dòmhnall remained after that at Lochboisdale, or at least travelled back and forth between there and Skye.
It seems that James Ruadh had promised his daughter in marriage to Cooper. Cooper was wealthy and much older, and that weighed in his favour.
We know that Cooper asked Seasaidh to marry him and that she refused. Whether she refused him publicly or privately at that exact time I don’t know — but she did not accept him.
The next thing we know is that in February 1850 a letter came from Seasaidh to Dòmhnall, telling him that her father had discovered that they intended to elope, and that if they were going to do anything, they would have to leave that very night.
That letter reached Dòmhnall at Lochboisdale, and that same night he arrived with what they called a gig — a dog-cart — with a pair of horses harnessed in tandem. The driver was Raghnall Dòmhnallach, a servant of Dòmhnall’s.
They stopped at Druim Dubh near Balranald. Dòmhnall went off, and it is said — not in the written records but in oral tradition — that Seasaidh was taken out through a window of Balranald House by ladder.
In any case, they returned to the cart at Druim Dubh and set off for Lochmaddy. One version of the story says that Raghnall rode the leading horse. It was said to be a yellow mare belonging to Dòmhnall of Mogastad, though another horse was a large thoroughbred. The yellow mare became exhausted before they reached Clachan a’ Lùip and had to be unharnessed. They claimed the journey from Druim Dubh to Lochmaddy took an hour and a quarter — which I don’t entirely believe!
They reached Lochmaddy and boarded a vessel called the Eliza MacLeod, crewed by Harris men. The skipper — and owner — was a man named Dòmhnall the Fiddler, Dòmhnall MacLeod.
The weather was dreadful. They boarded around four in the morning, but could not leave the pier until half past seven.
Shortly afterwards, the Balranald household awoke and realised that Seasaidh had fled.
Balranald himself and Cooper set off — on horseback, I believe — and if the song is to be believed, Seasaidh’s brother Alasdair went too. But as the song says:
“When they reached Lochmaddy, the Eliza was already under sail.”
She was already out to sea, so Balranald and Cooper decided to make for Skye and left again early the next morning on the mail packet, heading for Dunvegan.
But the weather worsened so much that the Eliza was forced to turn and run before the wind, eventually landing at Tarbert in Harris.
Somehow, word reached Rodel that she had eloped — they must have sent news across very quickly. At Rodel at that time was her father’s brother, the Harris estate factor — known as the MacDonald factor — a man with a very bad reputation for harshness towards the people.
Just as Balranald and Cooper were responsible for evictions at Sollas in North Uist.
Barely had they landed at Tarbert when her uncle appeared and took her against her will to Rodel. Dòmhnall Dòmhnallach had no choice but to put back to sea and return to Skye.
Meanwhile Cooper and Balranald were travelling across Skye, unaware that she had landed in Harris. This went on — not just overnight as some stories claim — but for nearly a fortnight.
At the end of that fortnight, a gathering took place at Lochside Inn in Skye near Mogastad. There was a good crowd — mostly Skye men, one Lewis man, one Harris man, and Dòmhnall of Mogastad with his cousin.
Word came that Cooper and Balranald were that very night in Portree, on the road to Dunvegan, and intended to sail for Rodel early next morning.
This was the crisis point. There was another boat — and this is where many people are misled. There were two boats named Eliza. This time it was not Dòmhnall the Fiddler’s vessel, but another one called the Eliza Clow, owned by a Skye man.
They took the Eliza Clow. There were thirteen men aboard: one Harris man, one Lewis man named Dòmhnall Leòdhasach MacKenzie, and the rest Skye men, including Dòmhnall of Mogastad himself.
They reached Rodel again around four in the morning. They learned from the grieve — who must have been sympathetic — that Seasaidh was effectively a prisoner in the big house, sleeping in the “red room” with her aunt.
Oral history tells us that a servant sympathetic to Dòmhnall left the main door unlocked. In any case, Dòmhnall got inside, went upstairs to the red room and called out to Seasaidh.
Her aunt awoke immediately and screamed, raising the alarm. The factor himself rose, shouting echoed through the house, and lights were lit everywhere. He came downstairs and found the Skye men and crew outside, and threatened them with a gun.
He is said to have declared:
“As long as I have powder and shot, I’ll deal with you!”
They retreated slightly — remember that Dòmhnall himself was trapped inside. The factor returned shortly with seven or eight servants. Then the estate clerk appeared with a gun and threatened them.
But Dòmhnall Leòdhasach said:
“We’ve seen that gun before!”
He and a Skye man, Teàrlach MacFhionghain, rushed him, struck him hard on the head with a heavy stick, knocked him down and took the gun. Blood was streaming from him.
Then he was heard shouting “Murder! Murder!” and escaped back inside.
The servants fled in and barred the door. Soon after, Dòmhnall appeared at an upstairs window shouting to the men to come in — that he himself was being held prisoner.
Using what some say was a boat spar, they smashed the door and a fight broke out on the staircase — with sticks, fists, boots, and anything to hand.
They fought their way upstairs, broke into the red room, and found Seasaidh just finishing dressing. As the song puts it:
“There was hurly-burly,
Up and down the stair,
Doors smashed, locks crushed —
They carried her out, thanks or no thanks.”
The factor’s wife screamed, crying “In God’s name, boys, do her no harm!”
And Dòmhnall Leòdhasach replied:
“We’ll do no harm if we get what we came for. If not, there will be corpses here tonight.”
They carried her downstairs amid further fighting. The factor tried to hold her back, but they overpowered him. In his presence the young couple declared their willingness to marry one another. Since he was a Justice of the Peace, Dòmhnall of Mogastad claimed this declaration stood as a lawful marriage — though whether that was strictly true is uncertain.
They took her down to the shore, put her aboard the Eliza Clow, and then the men returned and gave the servants another beating with sticks and fists.
It was said that no one on the Rodel estate was fit for work the next day after the Skye men were done with them — whether that is true or not.
They crossed the Minch, stopped briefly at Kilmaluag to put some crew ashore, then sailed to Gairloch. From there the couple went to Edinburgh — some say first to Gretna Green to be married by the blacksmith — but what we know for certain is that they were married in Edinburgh in the Gaelic Church.
Stories say they left immediately for Australia — but they did not. They remained in Scotland for several months. The Inverness court dealt with the case. Dòmhnall was charged with breaking into Rodel House, along with Teàrlach MacFhionghain and Dòmhnall Leòdhasach.
The trial took place in late summer or early autumn. Cooper and others testified, but Dòmhnall’s evidence was preferred by the jury. Seasaidh herself was brought into the witness box — she said nothing — but public sympathy was entirely on her side. The jury took only ten minutes to acquit them all.
A large crowd followed them, cheering, to the house of their lawyer, and surrounded it for some time making noise and celebrating.
A year or two later they did go to Australia. They had land there and raised a family. Seasaidh lived until 1896 and died at Hartfield near Melbourne.
He had died a few years earlier.”