!SOURCE: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon, and Alick Morrison, MACLEOD CHIEFS
OF HARRIS AND DUNVEGAN, Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod Society, 1969,
pp. 21-22.
Margaret, who married Donald Gorm Mor MacDonald, 7th of Sleat. He
repudiated her in 1600, and sent her home to her brother, Sir Roderick
Mor MacLeod. After her marriage to the Chief of Sleat, it would appear
that Margaret lost an eye, probably as the result of her husband''s
ill-treatment of her because she had no children to him, and was sent
back to Dunvegan. According to tradition, [Cameron: HISTORY AND
TRADITIONS OF THE ISLE OF SKYE (1871), p. 57-8] she was sent home,
mounted on a one-eyed grey horse, attended by a one-eyed ragged groom,
and followed by a one-eyed dog. The arrival of the pathetic procession
at the Castle of Dunvegan naturally roused Ruaraidh Mor''s ire, but at
first he sent a civil message to the Chief of Sleat to take his wife back,
which Donald Gorm Mor not only refused to do, but applied for a divorce
from her, on procuring which, he immediately married Mary, [Donald
Gorm Mor had no children by Mary MacKenzie (CLAN DONALD, III, p. 470.]
daughter of Colin MacKenzie, 11th of Kintail, and sister of MacLeod''s
greatest enemy, Sir Roderick MacKenzie, Tutor of Kintail. This added
insult to injury, and Ruaraidh Mor of Dunvegan at once determined to be
revenged for the injustice done to his sister, and for the unsult offered
to himself, his family and clan, in her person, by Donald Gorm Mor of
Sleat. [HISTORY OF THE MACLEODS, p. 65.] He immediately assembled his
forces and invaded the MacDonald country of Trotternish. Donald Gorm
Mor retaliated by invading Harris. Thus began a fierce and bitter warfare
between these two Skye clans, which went on for several years and was
accompaianied by much bloodshied on both sides. Both clans were
brought to the brink of ruin, but the Government stepped in in time to
save them, and a reconciliation was effected, the rival chiefs promising
to refrain from open hostility and to submit all their disputes to the
decision of the law. [Gregory: HISTORY OF THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS AND
ISLANDS (1881), p. 297.]