By Leonardo Sani & Emily Paton

(1722 – 4 March 1790), Jacobite heroine, was the daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Milton on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and his wife Marion, the daughter of Angus MacDonald. Her father died when she was a child, and her mother was abducted by Hugh MacDonald of Armadel, Skye. She was abused by her father before he died and her mother hated her. She was brought up under the care of the chief of her clan, the Mac Donalds of Clanranald, and was partly educated in Edinburgh. Throughout her life she was a practising Presbyterian. The picture of Flora in the background is in Inverness where she lived most of her childhood.

During the Jacobite Risings, in June 1746, at the age of 24, she was living on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides when Bonnie Prince Charlie took refuge there after the Battle of Culloden. The prince's companion, a Captain O'Neill, sought her assistance to help the prince escape capture. The island was controlled by the Hanoverian government using a local militia, but the Mac Donalds were secretly sympathetic with the Jacobite cause. After some hesitation, Flora promised to help the prince escape the island. At a later period she told the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II and commander-in-chief in Scotland, that she acted from charity and would have helped him also if he had been defeated and in distress.

Return to Scotland In 1779 Flora returned home to Scotland in a merchant ship. During the passage, the ship was attacked by a privateer. She refused to leave the deck during the attack and was wounded in the arm. Flora MacDonald had a large family of sons, who mostly entered the army or navy, and two daughters. She died at Kingsburgh on the Isle of Skye in 1790, at the age of 68. She is buried in the Kilmuir Cemetery. There is a statue to her memory in the grounds of Inverness Castle. In Scottish National Dancing - a relative of Highland Dancing, the dance "Flora MacDonald's Fancy" is named after her. It is known for its balletic steps and graceful movements, supposedly based on the dance that she performed for Bonnie Prince Charlie