What Happened In Stornoway When The Fife Adventurers Landed In 1599?

When the Fife Adventurers arrived to seize control from the clan chiefs and impose the jurisdiction of King James VI of Scotland, the Isle of Lewis was in the hands of Murdoch and Neil Macleod.

Murdoch and Neil rallied the Macleod clan to the defence of their island and put up stubborn resistance. However, they were eventually overcome and Stornoway Castle fell to the invaders.

The Fife Adventurers proceeded to establish their own colony in Stornoway. Neil Macleod, being a pragmatist, saw advantage in coming to an agreement with the Fife Adventurers. But this truce did not hold and Neil and another brother, Tormod, stormed the Adventurers' fort and forced them to flee.

King James VI was rather put out, having expected to make a tidy sum from the venture. He forced the Adventurers into a second expedition but with the intervening Union of the Crowns in 1603, it was another two years before the second expedition got off the ground.

Neil Macleod conducted a guerrilla campaign for two years before finally destroying the Adventurers' colony for a second time. A third expedition in 1607 successfully brought the Isle of Lewis under the control of the Crown.

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