THE WELL OF SEVEN HEADS

 

SEVEN HEADS

 

 

On 25 September 1662  Alexander Macdonald, the young chief of Keppoch, and his brother Ranald, were stabbed to death by rivals within their clan.   Nothing was done to avenge their deaths until Iain Lom, the Keppoch bard nagged MacDonald of Glengarry and Sir James McDonald of Sleat to punish the criminals.  Two years later the Privy Council in Edinburgh issued letter of ‘Fire & Sword’ against the murderers.

The seven men were hunted down at Inverlair, killed and decapitated.  Legend says that their heads were washed in a well at the side of Loch Oich and taken to Invergarry Castle before being set up on Gallows Hill in Edinburgh on 7 December 1665.    A monument over the well on the west side of Loch Oich at its southern extremity recalls this event with an inscription in Gaelic,English, French and Latin. The seven heads are carved around the top of the pillar together with a hand clasping a dagger.



THE WELL OF SEVEN HEADS