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Clan Donald Magazine No 6 (1975) Online
Historic Grave at Kilmuir, Memorial to a Great Skye Piper by Seton Gordon CBE. At the boundary between Duntuilm and Kilmuir in Trotternish of Skye is a burial place of worldwide renown, for the grave of the illustrious Flora MacDonald is here, and in summer her grave is visited daily by scores of people. Not one of these hundreds know that another historic grave is sited not many yards from where they are standing. The recumbent stone which marks it carries the following unique inscription: HERE LY THE REMAINS OF CHARLES MACKARTER WHOSE FAME AS AN HONEST MAN AND REMARKABLE PIPER WILL SURVIVE THIS GENERATION FOR HIS MANNERS WERE EASY AND REGULAR AS HIS MUSIC AND THE MELODY OF HIS FINGERS WILL
And here the inscription breaks off abruptly for the expert who inscribed it was lost at sea: and no-one had the heart to finish it! The MacArthur pipers may not have reached the eminence of the immortal MacCrimmons, but they were renowned players. They were pipers for generations to the Macdonalds of Sleat, whose residence, Duntuilm Castle, now a picturesque ruin, stand on the edge of the sea two miles north of Kilmuir burial ground. Distinguished pipers of the present generation still play the compositions of Ceol Mor, or the Great Music. A notable composition has a Gaelic name which translated reads "Beloved Scotland, MacArthur I leave thee gloomy". It is said that the Chief of Sleat had his MacArthur piper play it on his departure to Sheriffmuir in 1715. Some 200 years ago the famous traveller, Pennant, visited the MacArthur home and heard the head of the family play him a pibroch. Pennant certified MacArthur to be "quite the master of his instrument." The MacArthurs, like the MacCrimmons, held their land at Kilmuir rent-free. It is said they instructed their pupils on a small hill called Cnoc Phail (Paul's Hillock). As I write this account I recall the homage paid at the grave of Charles MacArthur one evening in early summer twenty years ago by the late Pipe-Major Robert Brown from the Queen's Balmoral estate. As one of Scotland's most distinguished pipers, Bob Brown had that afternoon been the star at MacCrimmon Day at Dunvegan and had piped Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod across the wide sea-loch that separates Dunvegan Castle from the site of the MacCrimmon College of Piping at Boreraig. That evening he was my guest at Upper Duntuilm and I took him to see the MacArthur Stone, which is near our house. It was late in the evening, the moon was shining and a corncrake was calling. The call of this bird specially interested him as a bird-lover, for the corncrake had by then entirely disappeared from Deeside. When we reached the burial ground, which was deserted at this late hour, he examined the stone with interest and veneration, then he tuned his pipe. As the strains of a MacArthur composition of the Ceol Mor echoed from the wild hills I wished that more listeners could have been present; for piping history was being made that evening, when perhaps the greatest piper then living paid his tribute to the immortal spirit of the Charles MacArthur of 200 years ago commemorated on that stone. Now Bob Brown himself, to our loss, has departed this life, and it can truly be said of him that his enthusiasm and work for Ceol Mor in distant lands have cost him his life at a comparatively early age. Editor's Note: We are honoured that Seton Gordon CBE, the greatest student and recorder of Highland tradition alive today, contributed this article at short notice. It matches well with the review of the Collection of Ceol Mor by Donald Macdonald, himself a pupil of MacArthur, reviewed by us on page 93.
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