The visions made a deep impression on Donald and his earnest accounts were well remembered by older people. Dixon notes that locals later understood them as foretelling the visits to himself at Inveran by the Poolewe section of the Gairloch volunteers, who wore scarlet Highland doublets.
He links the report with the similar fleet vision at Mellon Udrigil and with phantom marches elsewhere, and mentions mirage as one explanation.
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