In 1597, the MacLeod clan chiefs were served with papers from the government stating that despite their centuries-long feudal tenure of the Isle of Lewis, their lack of legal paperwork exposed the lands to claims from the Crown.
King James VI had the aim of beginning the "civilising" or "de-Gaelicisation" of the islands and had much in common with the Plantation of Ulster which occurred some years later.
In 1598, a group of noblemen, several from east Fife, sought the approval of King James for the colonisation of the Isle of Lewis.
[8] The Gentlemen Adventurers of Fife arrived at the Isle of Lewis by ship from St Andrews in 1599 with a private army of 600 men.
A settlement of primitive houses was created on the Lewis coast near where Stornoway now stands, in an area now called South Beach.
A power struggle then began between the Macleod brothers and Neil agreed to surrender Murdoch to the remaining settlers in exchange for a pardon for his own crimes, in a court in Edinburgh.
He was not beheaded whilst alive (a punishment reserved for noblemen) but his head was removed post mortem and was placed on a spike above the Nether Bow Port.