There are a number of folk tales associated with these particular caves. One story concerns the last of the MacPhee lairds of Colonsay who had been defeated by his enemies, the MacNeills. He took refuge, with his three dogs, from an approaching gang of MacNeills, in the Slochd dubh Mhic a Phi (MacPhee’s Dark Cave, or Pit).
This had an entrance from the sea and another from the land. At the sea end MacPhee placed his three dogs. He stood in the cave at a point where anyone trying to get in from the land entrance would have to get down on all fours to pass through. MacPhee cut the head off each MacNeill in turn as he crawled through. Eventually the MacNeills who waited outside suspected trouble and started to dig an entrance through the roof, whereupon MacPhee went out by the sea entrance and swam across the bay to a rock still known as the Black Skerry of the MacPhee.
Colonsay Cave Folklore
By Marg Greenwood