flag was unfurled at several clan battles in the 15th and 16th centuries; the flag's magical powers are said to have won at least one of them. Another 19th-century tradition linked the flag to a prophecy which foretold the downfall of Clan MacLeod; but it also prophesied that, in the "far distant future", the clan would regain its power and raise its honour higher than ever before. In the mid-20th century, the Fairy Flag was said to have extinguished a fire at Dunvegan Castle, and to have given luck to servicemen flying bombing missions in the Second World War. Description In the 19th century, the writer Rev. Norman Macleod (1783–1862) recalled seeing the Fairy Flag during his childhood around 1799 (see relevant section below). He described the flag as then having crosses wrought in gold thread, and several "elf spots" stitched upon it. N. Macleod recollected that when the flag was examined, bits were taken off it from time to time; so much so, that later in his life he did not believe the flag still existed. In August 1814, Sir Walter Scott visited Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, and wrote of the visit in his diary. One of several items he mentioned seeing was the Fairy Flag. Scott described it as "a pennon of silk, with something like round red rowan-berries wrought upon it". John Francis Campbell saw the flag in 1871, and described it as being "made of yellow raw silk with figures and spots worked on it in red". In 1927, Roderick Charles MacLeod described the flag as then being square and brown. He measured it as about squared. He considered the flag to have originally been much larger; and remarked on its extreme fragility and the requirement for careful handling, if it should be handled at all. R. C. MacLeod noted N. Macleod's description of the flag, but observed that it now only contained the "elf spots"—there was then no evidence of any crosses upon what remained of the flag. R. C. MacLeod also observed that several tears in the flag had been carefully mended. The flag was examined in the early 20th century by A. J. B. Wace of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who concluded that the silk was woven in either Syria or Rhodes, and the darns were made in the Near East. It was his opinion that the flag, in