St Columba, St Moluag and Oran

Now and again when the opportunity arose Alexander Carmichael would make periodic visits to his native island. Such visits would have allowed the young exciseman not only to reconnect with the place of his birth but also afforded him the opportunity to pick up some of the local lore from the older inhabitants. Here, for example, is something which Carmichael picked up from Duncan Carmichael (fl. 1870) on 2 September 1870 while they travelled by boat from Oban to Lismore. It reflects the tenacity and sheer opportunism of Carmichael’s curiosity and of a collector who would be loath to miss any chance that came by his way to get something down on paper, a habit that had already stood him in good stead and which would continue to do so in the remaining years of his collecting career. Both these traditions have been recorded elsewhere but it must have been satisfying for Alexander Carmichael to have got them from a fellow islander, who, given their shared surnames, might have been related to him:

Mr Duncan Carmichael
in the boat who told me Calumcille
Maoluag and Ordhean were brothers
M[aoluag] & C[alumchille] were making for Lismore
& each try[ing] who sh[ou]ld be ashore first M[aoluag]
put his finger on the tobht
& cut it off and when near
shore threw it ashore say[ing] Tha m
fhuil us m fheoil eir tir agus
s lioms an t eilean & then Maol[uag] got Lismore
& Cal[umchille] went to Iona (Ithona).
Lismore got its name from having
been a garden for Macdonald of the Isles,
who had tai[gh] eir le[th] Alaba (Baile ’s le[th] Alaba?)
All the sur[rounding] country was then a wilderness.
Orran [sic] was bur[ied] alive & on the 4 day
Col[m]kill[e] open[ed] his grave to see if he was still
alive – which he was. Cal[umcille] asked him
how he felt during his three days in the
grave. Oran rep[lied] that Ifrin[n] was not so
bad as aledg[ed] whereupon Cal[umcille] said Uir eir
eir suil Odhrain mur la[bh]uir e tuille
cob[h]air[idh] when the earth was shovelled back
upon him again Col[mcille] fear[ed] that such
lang[uage] com[in]g fr[om] Or[an] might injure[?] the com[passion?]
he had at heart.

References:
CW107, fols. 5r–5v
Carmichael, Alexander, ‘The Barons of Bachuill’, The Celtic Review, vol. V (1908–09), pp. 356–75
McDonald, Fr Allan, ‘Calum-Cille agus Dobhran a Bhrathair’, The Celtic Review, vol. V (1908–09), pp. 107–09.
Image:
St Moluag’s Cathedral, the Isle of Lismore

Carmichaels and the Stewarts of Appin

When Alexander Carmichael visited his native island of Lismore he would take the opportunity to write down snippets of information about historical traditions which had a bearing upon this part of Argyllshire. Being a Carmichael himself, he probably relished the thought of his clan name being the oldest in Lismore, the ones who could best claim seniority. But there may well be some historical veracity to this claim. Aside from being standard-bearers to the Stewarts of Appin, it is interesting to note the rôle carried out by the Carmichaels on the burial of a chief of the Stewarts of Appin. Carrying the coffin three times sun-wise (or deiseil) around the cemetery was a well-known phenomenon and, it seems, a very robust one: this presumably ancient burial custom was still being carried out within living memory.

Carmichael is said to be the oldest name in Lismore and the oldest in Appin and to have been in Appin before the advent of the Stewarts. […] Besides being standard bearers to the chiefs of Appin the Carmichaels were at the death of a chief (probably) to remove the body from the house to the […] upon lacking the place of burial the Carmichaels resumed possession of the body and carrying it three times sun-wise round the burying place laid it in the grave Then in conveying their heads and bowing reverently low towards the dead they all said together –

’Slan le fear mo ghraidh

Go m’ failtich mise rithist thu

Fare thee well man of my love

Till I hail thee again.

References: CW MS 383, fos. 183r–184v.
Image: Stewart of Appin Arms.

Carmichael on the Carmichaels

It may come as something of a surprise that Alexander Carmichael did not write a great deal about either himself or his own family background. Given that he was usually interested in any given informant’s back story or, indeed, where he often took the trouble to write down some family traditions, it seems to be a bit of mystery why he did not write more about himself just as his fellow friend and Argyllshire Gael had done, John Murdoch (1818–1903), in his comprehensive five-volume autobiography. But write he did and there are interesting highlights of Carmichael lore that he saved for posterity:

Phos mo shin-seanair, Domhnull mac Eoghain, Mairi NicPhilip, nighean Iain Mhicphilip, ann an Cill a chionain, an Liosmor. Phos a mhac – mo sheanair-Gilleaspa mac Dhomhnuill, - Isebeil Nic Griogair nighean [ ] Mhic Griogair anns a Chrogan am Muile. Phos m athair Beitidh NicColla nighean Dhomhnuill ic Cholla - “Domhnull Taigh an Tobair.”

Bha tri teaghlach a Chlann Mhic Ille mhicheil ann an Liosmor a bha dol fo bhrataich Fear Glinne Faochan. B’ iad na teaghlaichean seo, Gilleaspaig Ban Chloiche leithe; Eoghan mac Dhomhnuill ann an Achadhmanduin, agus Gillesapuig mac Dhomhnuill mhic Eoghain (mo sheanair) agus comhla riu seo bha Iain Macachananaich Ann an Cill-sheathaine. (Cill-einne). B’e a b’ aobhar dha seo gun robh comh-dhaltas eadar na daoine so agus Caimbeulaich Ghlinne Faochan agus bu treasa comh-dhaltas na fuil-moran.

Fuil gu fichead

Comhaltas gu ceud.

Bha brathair mo sheanamhair – brathair Isibeil nic Griogair – posd aig piuthar Captinn Ardtuir. Bha e na Quarter master agus na Paymaster anns an 26 Cameronians.

My great-grandfather, Donald son of Ewen, married Mairi MacKillop, daughter of John MacKillop, in Cillchonnan, in Lismore. His son, my grandfather, Archibald, son of Donald, married Isobell MacGregor, daughter of [ ] MacGregor in Crogan in Mull. My father married Betty MacColl daughter of Donald MacColl – “Donald of Taigh an Tobair.”

There were three families of Carmichaels in Lismore that followed the banner of Fear Glinne Foachan. There families were, Fair-haired Archibald of Chloiche Leithe; Ewen son of Donald in Achadhmanduin, and Archibald son of Donald son of Ewen (my grandfather) and along with these was John Buchanan in Cill-shataine. The reason for this was fosterage between these people and the Campbells of Glen Faochan and fosterage was stronger than blood for many:

Blood relations to twenty degrees

Fosterage to a hundred

My grandmother’s brother – Isobel’s MacGregor’s brother – was married to the Captain of Ardtuir’s sister. He was a quartermaster and a paymaster in the 26 Cameronians.

There are intriguing lines of enquiry to follow here and more research into Carmichael’s family tree may well reveal the exact relationship that once existed between the Carmichaels of Lismore and the Campbells of Glen Feochan on mainland Argyllshire.

Ref:
CW 391, fos. 175–76. This was written down by Carmichael on 22 June 1904.
Image: Photograph of Alexander Carmichael, taken in Edinburgh c. 1905.