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MacLeod's Fairy Flag
Or in Gaelic: Bratach Sìth MhicLeòid
It is a piece of fabric supposedly holding supernatural powers. When unfurled, the clan will be
victorious. This fortune can be used only three times and legend has it the flag was already called upon twice. Unfortunately, accounts differ as to when exactly.
Some also believe that the flag itself was a gift from a fairy woman (leannan sìth).
A famous folklorist called John Gregorson Campbell (1834-91) had the privilege of seeing the fabric in October 1871 and wrote down the following:
"It is made of yellow raw silk with figures and spots worked
on in red... There is something odd and uncanny about the whole thing. By rights there ought to have been legions of imps about our ears when the flag was unfurled but none came that I saw or heard."
It is still an heirloom of the MacLeod chiefs and is held in Dunvegan Castle on Skye.
