“It was in the Pass of Ballochy that in the year 1546 a party of marauding Macintoshes were surprised by the Macdonalds of Ben Nevis led by Mac ’ic Eachainn in person and every single one of them killed. Some years later Clan Chattan took its revenge for this defeat by descending into Strathdiddle, when the young men were raiding the Cameron country to the south, and baking thirty-two old and infirm Macdonalds in an oven. For this Hector the ninth of Ben Nevis exacted a terrible penalty from Clan Chattan when after marching from Glenbogle with his Macdonalds through a stormy December night in the year 1549 he caught the Macintoshes unawares on a Sunday morning and burned forty-five of them in church. While the unfortunate victims of Hector’s vengeance were burning, Hector’s piper Angus MacQuat improvised a tune and played it to drown their shrieks. This tune, called Mac ’ic Eachainn’s Return to Glenbogle, is still played by a MacQuat whenever MacDonald of Ben Nevis returns after spending even a single night away from his Castle.

“A poem by an unknown Gaelic bard of the sixteenth century celebrating the battle in the Pass of Ballochy was rendered into spirited English verse by the late lamented Reverend Colin MacKellaig, D.D., whose translations from the vernacular rendered a service to the ‘land of bens and glens and heroes’ second only to his faithful service for over sixty years as a Minister of the Gospel at first in his own Inverness-shire and then at the United Free Church in Dudden Gardens, Glasgow.

“THE BATTLE OF THE PASS OF BALLOCHY

Sound the loud pibroch, ye sons of great Hector,

Lift your claymores and strike hard at the foe,

Hurry as fast as ye can from Glenbogle,

Clansmen of Hector, cry shame on the slow!

Whistle, ye winds, ‘Mac ’ic Eachainn for ever!’

Roar, ye wild waters, ‘Ben Nevis gu brath!’

Swift as the Bogle in spate, ye MacDonalds,

Fall on the Macintosh, drive him awa’.

Sharp are the claws of the cat of Clan Chattan,

Gleam their claymores in the Ballochy Pass;

But sharper the talons of Hector’s own eagles

That swoop from Ben Booey, Ben Gorm and Ben Glass.

Swoop on the Macintosh, rend him in pieces,

None of Clan Chattan this day shall survive,

Sons of Clan Donald, salute your great Chieftain;

Dead is the Macintosh, Hector’s alive!

Faithful and fair is my own Mac ’ic Eachainn,

Mighty and mettlesome, stalwart and true,

Lord of Ben Nevis, Glenbogle, Glenbristle,

Strathdiddle, Strathdun, Loch Hoch and Loch Hoo.”