But the community settled down happily enough with the Redcoats - the Highland ones, at least - strange though it seemed to some of them.
But Jamie Macdoonald, nodding over to the man by man by the fire, muttered to his cousin Conn, 'Keep an eye on that one.' Outwardly he grinned at Mairi and Alasdair's guest, and challenged him aloud to a trial of strength.
Conn joined in the fierce games of shinty during the short afternoons, cracking many a Campbell's shin with his stick and receiving as many bruises back.
'I can't see anything wrong with them,' he said to Jamie one evening.