One of the most powerful and oldest of the Clans of Scotland is the Clan MacLeod. Now for over one thousand years the ancestral home of the MacLeod's has been Dunvegan Castlenear Loch Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. A long time ago it has been told a MacLeod chieftain named Malcolm wed a fairy woman and she bore him a son but the fairy woman grew sad after a time for she missed her home, the mystical land of the fairies, and Malcolm having a great love for his wife set out across the loch with her alone and walked the path with her to Annwn, the land of the fairies leaving the infant heir to the lands of Dunvegan. Malcolm returned home his heart clouded with sadness even though that very night there was to be a feast celebrating the birth of his son.

The feast was grand indeed with venison, duck and beef served to all who came. Pipers from Clan MacCrimmon came to perform and there was dancing and the ale flowed heavily. All the time the infant slept, watched over by a nursemaid. She was a young girl who heard the revelry and wished to join in and taking one look at the sleeping child went to join the party. The nursemaid came into the hall and joined in the celebration but Malcolm saw her and thinking she had left the infant in the care of another bid her to fetch the child so that he may see him. The nursemaid prayed to herself that no harm had befallen the infant while she was away but as she was returning an bird flew by with a screech and this awakened the infant. The little heir to the MacLeods began crying and it's wails filled the room but no one was around to comfort him. However the babe's mother heard it's mourning and sought to comfort him so she passed across the night sky in spirit form and although she could not hold him she weaved a blanket of green silken thread with tiny spots and this soothed the infant and set him off to sleep again.

The nursemaid came into the room and saw the baby relieved, to see it safe, and took him to the chieftain. As she walked beautiful music followed her and it grew louder as she entered the hall. Even the pipers stopped playing to listen and the music filled the hall and fairy voices sang of the gift given to the infant. The blanket was magical for when the MacLeod's were in great danger they were to wave the flag and they would be delivered, but only three times. However, if any MacLeod waved the flag for reasons trivial then a great misfortune would befall them and with that the music ended.

Malcolm ordered that the flag be placed in a iron case of great workmanship and that only the chieftain be allowed to have the key or be in possession of the flag. Malcolm never came across reason to wave the flag nor did the infant son and as generations passed the flag was never used but the legend was passed on and on.

One day the Clan MacDonald began to attack the lands of the MacLeods, for the two were old enemies, but the MacDonalds outnumbered the MacLeods and at Trumpan there was a long and fierce battle that the MacLeods were losing. The clan chieftain remembered the legend of the fairy flag and decided to use it. He held the flag aloft and waved it and at once it seemed that the MacDonalds fell back and that the MacLeods were filled with an unearthly strength and ferocity and the MacDonalds were driven away. The flag was proven to have worked or was it?

[image3_right]Many years later a disease ran amongst the livestock of each clan and without the herds there would be little food or income. When all seemed lost the chieftain called for the flag and waved it across the land hoping that it would work. Soon enough the sick cattle recovered and the disease spread no longer on the land of the MacLeods. The flag seemed to work again.

Many years after this in 1799 a man employed by the MacLeods named Buchman, heard about the flag but dismissed it as superstition and sought to prove it. When the chieftain was away he had an English blacksmith break open the case for the chieftain always had the key and he waved it around. Naturally disaster struck and the heir to the MacLeod lands was killed in an explosion on board the HMS Charlotte, the MacLeods had to sell some land to the Campbells and others as their finances were in jeopardy and the chief's own family dwindled. The clan lost it's old glory yet today is still around and still strong. In fact, if you wish, you can still go to Dunvegan castle and see the green fairy flag locked in a case of glass perhaps never to be waved again.