Primary Sources
R Blar Bhaternis / The Battle of Waternish R.43: 30v
K1 Druim Thalasgair, na Blàr Bhaterneish / The Battle of Waternish K1.17: 46
JK The Battle of […] JK.49: 130
Notes on Gaelic Titles
Blàr Bhatarnais Blar Bhaternis / The Battle of Waternish R; Druim Thalasgair / na Blàr Bhaterneish / The Battle of Waternish K1. The Battle of Waternish. In the English name the spelling is ‘Waterness’ in JKA. For a related song, and traditions, see R. Black, The Gaelic Otherworld. Birlinn, Edinburgh (2008), p. 435 note 621.
Druim Thalaisgeir Nameless in G, but named Druim Thaulscire in Gesto Notes, with explanation that the place is in Waternish, Skye. The word after Druim is hard to read, and in L. MacDonald, ‘Remarks by Captain MacLeod, as far as he has been informed by the late John MacCrimmon, piper, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye.’The Celtic Magazine VIII, No. XCIII (1883), 435–455, it was given wrongly as Phoulscon.
Archive Recording
1953 Pipe Major William MacLean
There were several battles in Skye between the MacLeods and the MacDonalds, and they are not clearly separated. One was the notorious ‘Battle of the Spoilt Dyke’ near Trumpan where a party of marauders were caught when their boats were stranded by the tide; another took place in the region north of the Cuillin Hills, near Corrie na Creiche. Waternish House is several miles south of Trumpan, so there may have been another conflict referred to by the pibroch.