The Battle of the Spoiling Dyke or Battle of the Spoiled Dyke () was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1578 on the island of Skye between the MacDonalds of Uist and Clan MacLeod.Clan MacLeod@Electric Scotland.com"The Massacre at Trumpan Church and the subsequent Battle of the Spoiled Dyke" . The Hendry Family. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
The MacDonalds of Uist barred the doors of Trumpan Church, or Kilconan Church as it was once known, east of the shores of Ardmore Bay. They then set fire to the church full of worshipers. No one escaped alive except one girl who, although mortally wounded, managed to give the alarm. On hearing the news, the chief of Clan MacLeod and his men set off for Ardmore bay where a battle ensued. The MacDonalds were killed almost to a man. The corpses of the MacDonalds were dragged and then buried in a turf dyke, and the incident remembered as the "Battle of the Spoiling Dyke". The atrocity by the MacDonalds was to exact vengeance on the MacLeods for their atrocity of the massacre of MacDonalds in the Cave of Frances on the Isle of Eigg a couple of years earlier.Kieran, Ben. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur, Yale University Press, 2007 , . p.14 This again was a tit-for-tat revenge between the two feuding clans.Battle of the Spoiling Dyke@The Son of Scotland.co.uk Clan Warfare
See also Battle of the Braes Glendale
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