It's a journey from the North of Skye to the South Side of London, not to mention a trip to Australia and back in between.  But that is the remarkable journey - involving the Jacobite Rising, the Clearances and the Highland Emigration - that took a young man from the Kilmuir area to the Millwall football team and games against Arsenal and Spurs in the late 19th century.

Martin MacPhee or McPhie had deep and somewhat distinguished roots in Skye. Who was his great-great-great-grandmother but Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite heroine who helped Charles Edward Stuart to safety in 1746 with the MacPhees in later generations living in the village of Erisco, by Duntulm.

But Martin wasn't born in Balmaqueen either. His parents and two young sons had abandoned their native island and sailed from Liverpool in 1860.  "There wouldn't have been much for them here at the time and they left for Australia to find a better life," Calum says.

That is why Martin MacPhee was born around 1867 in a place that had been taken over by settlers as Merino Downs (in present-day Victoria), and where many Gaels had already made their home.

And this is also, more than 150 years later, what had confused those researching the history of the Millwall football club. David Sullivan's life's work is just that, with a particular interest in the stories of the players. Indeed, the club itself approached him last year seeking a list of appearances for the Lions dating back to the club's very beginnings in 1885.

Norman MacPhee from Erisco on the Isle of Skye who became mayor of the town of Tamworth in England. The MacPhees appeared in an exhibition at the Kilmuir Historical Society last year about shops that once existed in the area

However, Martin's uncle, Norman, was in England. Norman MacPhee would say that he left the Island at the age of 18 with half a crown in his pocket to seek his fortune. He didn't do too badly, eventually running his own business and also being elected mayor of the town of Tamworth. And from there he would return home and advise the youth of the Island on how to raise themselves in the wider world.

It is, therefore, little wonder that when he himself reached an age, Martin took the road South and spent some time with uncle, "Norman Tamworth".  But surprisingly, it was on the football pitch that Martin first made a name for himself and in the city of London. (He became a Civil Service Clerk). In 1887 a new team made up of mostly Diasporan Scots called the London Caledonians knocked Tottenham Hotspur out of the East London Cup:

"Led on by Mason, the "Spurs" advanced to the attack, Humphrey and M'Fie repeatedly cleared the lines", reported the papers.

And in the end, the Caledonians shared the trophy with a team known, at the time, as Millwall Rovers, later Millwall Athletic and then straight Millwall, which had been founded on the Isle of Dogs by employees of a Scottish company, with several players from Scotland, and a (first) chairman (the local doctor, William Murray Leslie but) from from the Black Isle. "Scotland was a very fertile field for Millwall", says David Sullivan.

It was natural enough, therefore, that MacPhee, a Gaelic-speaking Scottish Australian would also from early on help them when he was not playing for the Caledonians. He was popular. According to press reports in 1890, the Skye native was "one of the best half-backs in London.....a player of a high order". As perhaps a sign of Martin's reputation at the time a letter he wrote even appeared in the newspapers as an advertisement for a cure for rheumatism.

And that same year, 1890, MacPhee would be part of a Millwall team that finished 3-3 against their great rivals, Royal Arsenal, or simply Arsenal as we know them today, a club, also founded by Scots, he  also came to know very well. He played for them in a charity match and on Christmas Day 1891, he organised a team of Millwall and London Caledonians players under the name 'M'Fie's Eleven' to play against them.

Millwall Rovers in 1888 with Martin MacPhee seated on the right. Shortly after this they changed their name to Millwall Athletic. At the back left (with hat on) is the first chairman, Dr William Murray Leslie of Knockbain in the Black Isle

The London Caledonians team in 1891. Martin MacPhee is seated second from the right.

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A sketch of Martin MacPhee - "one of the best half-backs in London" - which appeared in several newspapers in 1890.

MacPhee had enough fame to be in the limelight. Thanks to the British Newspaper Archive for the images from the British Library Board

However, whilst London Caledonians would be and remain remain staunchly amateur until dissolution in 1939 both Arsenal and Millwall were steadily gaining a reputation as the biggest and best in London and moving towards professional status, something no other clubs in the city had done before. For the former it would be in 1891, for the latter 1893. And meantime Martin MacPhee would take a different route. He joined the army, reaching the rank of Sergeant Major in the Royal Fusiliers and receiving a medal for his wartime bravery.

In 1915 he had married in Dover. Two years later a son, also named Martin, was born but died as an infant. In 1939 Martin Snr was living in London, in St. Johns Wood. In 1950 he and his wife were living in Marylebone, she dying there in 1951. He himself would pass away at the age of 85 just the following year, far from the ruins of Erisco, even further from Merino Downs, in Hastings. And although he was mentioned in a book in 1924 as one of the early heroes of the London Caledonians, Martin's name and fame would be lost in the mists of time, at least until Millwall historians began digging. "The story of MacPhee and how he returned from Australia after the death of his mother – it's very poignant", says David Sullivan.