Skye Boat Song

OVER THE SEA TO SKYE

The famous Skye Boat Song commemorates Bonnie Prince Charlie's escape from under the noses of government troops. Robin Hodge on a stirring story of heroism and danger

Flora Macdonald by Johannes Faber (National Galleries of Scotland) T he Skye Boat Song recounts part of one of the greatest manhunts in Scottish history. In the spring and summer of 1746, the might of the British state scoured land and sea in a ruthless effort to capture Bonnie Prince Charlie following the Jacobite defeat at Culloden (see opposite). A reward of £30,000, a vast fortune at the time, was offered to anyone who betrayed him. None did.

Contrary to popular belief, the boat was crossing, not from the mainland but, in fact, back to Skye from the Outer Hebrides, where the Prince had been hiding in caves and abandoned bothies for ten long weeks following the battle.

The Royal Navy was patrolling the coast in frigates and large numbers of troops were combing every corner of the islands, closing in on the Prince and his band of supporters.

Fionnghal (generally called Flora) Macdonald came to the rescue. A young woman of 24 who was staying with her brother on South Uist, she was known to visit Skye from time to time and keep house for her stepfather at Armadale.

Flora knew she could get the relevant papers giving her permission to travel and she proposed disguising the Prince as her maid and taking him on her clan’s boat over to Skye. The Prince was reluctant as the penalties for those caught helping him were severe – confiscation of family lands and execution for some, with transportation to indentured labour (akin to slavery) for others.

But the net was closing fast and there was no other way out. Flora brought some women's clothes to the Prince’s bothy and dressed him, adding a headdress and cap to conceal as much of his face as possible.

They set out on the grey, rainy evening of 28 June 1746 with a crew of five who rowed through the night, helped by a westerly wind. Having avoided a patrol, they landed at Kilbride on the Trotternish peninsula of Skye.

Leaving her ‘maid’ sheltering at the top of the beach, Flora went to the nearby house at Monkstadt where she encountered Lieutenant MacLeod of the local progovernment militia, who insisted on inspecting her papers. She kept her nerve and distracted him while secret preparations were made to find a guide to take the Prince across the island to Portree.

The Prince went on to spend another ten weeks living rough in the heather, roaming as far east as Ben Alder. Eventually he escaped back to France on the French naval ship L’Heureux.

Flora Macdonald was subsequently arrested and taken to the Tower of London, but was later released and returned to Skye. Some 20 years later, she was visited by Dr Samuel Johnson who predicted that her name would be ‘mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.’

Bonnie Prince Charlie and the '45

Prince Charles Edward Stuart by Allan Ramsay (National Galleries of Scotland)

Robin Hodge gives a brief account of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745-6 that continues to cast a romantic and fateful shadow over Scottish history

Prince Charles Edward Stuart – more commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie – arrived in Scotland for the first time on 23 July 1745 aged 24. He landed on Eriskay between Barra and South Uist with just a few companions, no troops, some muskets and little money.

He had failed to win the full backing of the French king and what few soldiers he had managed to gather on a sister ship were intercepted by the Royal Navy and forced to return to France. As a way of launching a rebellion which aimed to topple the British state, it was an inauspicious start.

Such was the personal charm, determination and courage of the Prince, however, that a number of Highland chiefs and the few thousand men loyal to them rallied to the standard raised at Glenfinnan. After marching south, initial success over government troops at Prestonpans in East Lothian led to joyful partying in Edinburgh, followed by a march into England. Charles' Jacobites evaded two larger government armies and reached Derby on 4 December with the road on to London open before them almost unopposed.

A debate raged in the Prince’s camp as to whether to march on and attempt to take London or to retreat. In one of the great what-ifs of British history, the Prince allowed the advance to be postponed in the hope that reinforcements would soon arrive from France. These never came and the army retraced its steps all the way back to Scotland, fighting skirmishes along the way.

The final showdown came on 16 April 1746 on Drummossie Muir near Culloden, to the east of Inverness, when the depleted and weary ranks of the Prince’s Highlanders faced fresh government troops with their superior numbers and plentiful cannons. It was a short but bloody battle. Around 1,500 men on the Jacobite side died and many more were butchered across the Highlands in the repression that followed.

The Prince was forced to flee into the hills and islands for months, evading capture and most famously crossing to the Isle of Skye, in disguise, in the company of Flora MacDonald (see main feature). He eventually left Scotland in September 1746, never to return. SKYE BOAT SONG

Traditional Lyrics

Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, Onward! the sailors cry; Carry the lad that's born to be King Over the sea to Skye.

Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar, Thunderclaps rend the air; Baffled, our foes stand by the shore, Follow they will not dare.

Many’s the lad, fought in that day Well the claymore did wield; When the night came, silently lay Dead on Culloden's field.

Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep, Ocean's a royal bed. Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep Watch by your weary head.

Burned are their homes, exile and death Scatter the loyal men; Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath Charlie will come again.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote alternative lyrics in 1892 and it has been further adapted for the theme tune to the TV series Outlander.