IN June 1719 the latest desperate attempt at a Jacobite rebellion began in Glenshiel. The glen ran north-west from the central Highlands to the wild waters of a trackless wilderness facing narrow seas and the Isle of Skye from the castle of Eilean Donan.
Since the Vikings, only nature had disturbed the solitude where three sea lochs met. Now, out of the blue of a budding spring, a Spanish fleet arrived carrying also Scottish, Irish and other fighting men. They had enough armaments to cause ticklish logistical problems for a government in London to feel it had no choice but to throw them out as soon as it could. Then as now, the Unionist government in London did not otherwise defend Scottish shores.
