Although the Chief at the time of the '45 did not support Bonnie Prince Charlie, many of his Clan did do so.

Visible from the castle on the other side of the Loch is Galtrigal, the home of the Prince's pilot, Donald MacLeod of Galtrigal, the man who brought the Prince 'Over the sea to Skye' from Uist during the time when the Prince was a fugitive.

At the time the Chief was one of the people searching to apprehend the Prince. Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite heroine, was in the boat with the Prince, and equally being hunted by the MacLeod Chief.

By one of those quirks of fate, some twenty or thirty years later, her daughter had married the Tutor to the young Chief of MacLeod, and was living in the Castle.

The mother, on one of her return visits from America where she had emigrated, is believed to have stayed for two or three years in the Castle and left her personal Jacobite relics to her daughter.

Thus you will see in the castle still today her Stays, her Pin-Cushion with the names of those who suffered in the '45, a Lock of the Prince's Hair, a list of her children, and a small portrait of herself copied by the wife of the 24th Chief.

Exhibited in the castle are also the Spectacles of Donald MacLeod of Galtrigal, the Prince's boatman, and the Amen Glass which was given to Donald MacLeod by the Prince, inscribed with the words 'To my faithful Palinurus' alluding to the boatman who conducts people across the Loch. Another interesting object with a fanciful engraving of the Prince is the tooth of a sperm whale which can also be seen in the castle today.

 

"A visit to Dunvegan Castle is altogether a fascinating and memorable experience."