OBJECT FILE
The Fairy Flag of Dunvegan
FOLLOWDunvegan Castle, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye, United Kingdom
THE OBJECT
A square of yellow or brown silk about 45 cm across, ripped and extremely fragile, held by the chiefs of Clan MacLeod at Dunvegan Castle on Skye, shown with the Dunvegan Cup and Sir Rory Mor's Horn. The estate says experts have dated the silk to between the 4th and 7th centuries — long before the crusade stories told about it.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
Traditions credit it with multiplying the clan's warriors, saving chosen clansmen, curing cattle plague, bringing fertility and herring to the loch. Unfurled more than three times it would vanish or lose its power. Legend has it waved at 15th- and 16th-century clan battles; in the 20th century it was said to have put out a fire at the castle and given luck to bomber crews in the Second World War. Thomas Pennant recorded the tradition on his 1772 Hebrides tour, and Walter Scott saw it in 1814.
WHERE IT IS NOW
On public display — kept by The MacLeod of MacLeod (Dunvegan Castle). Dunvegan Castle, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye, United Kingdom.
PROVENANCE · 1 ENTRY
TRACE ON THE MAP →1772 — CURRENT LOCATION
The chiefs of Clan MacLeod
Dunvegan Castle, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye, United Kingdom
1772 is the first written record used here (Pennant's tour); the clan held it long before. Year-level.
Source: Wikipedia, Fairy Flag (Thomas Pennant's 1772 account; 'The flag is currently held in Dunvegan Castle')
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