Alexander Carmichael and the Island of Scarp - II

In the previous blog we set the scene: the now uninhabited island of Scarp, off the north-west coast of ‘mainland’ Harris, and the anecdotes that Alexander Carmichael recorded there in November 1881. We’re going to continue by looking at what we know about schooling on the island before Carmichael’s visit.

 

There had been schools in Scarp before. The first on record was opened by the Edinburgh Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools in 1821, shortly after the small existing island population was joined by many more cleared from their townships on the Harris mainland opposite, to make way for a sheep farm. Provision remained patchy for a generation, whether because schoolteachers were unwilling to commit themselves to such an isolated posting – a persistent problem for Scarpaich as long as the island was inhabited – or because the Society’s remit to circulating schools meant that it was not part of its plan anyway to fund a permanent employee in Scarp.

 

In 1856 the school in Scarp was taken over by the Association for the Religious Improvement of the Remote Highlands and Islands, better known as the Ladies’ Highland Association of the Free Church (LHA), in whose Sgoiltean nan Leddies – the Ladies’ Schools – generations of Highlanders received their institutional education. A contemporary anecdote about the advent of Sgoil nan Leddies is preserved in the Rev. Angus Duncan’s superb ethnographical history Hebridean Island: Memories of Scarp:

 

So anxious had been the heads of the island’s twenty-four families, that they told a delegate who visited the island that if he got a teacher for them, they would gladly row him not only to Tarbert, where they took him after his visit, but as far as Lochmaddy, forty miles away! That LHA delegate was the Rev Lewis Hay Irving, Free Church minister of Falkirk. A third of the island’s population, including married men – as was customary in the Highlands a hundred years ago – attended this Ladies’ School, the instruction consisting chiefly, if not entirely, of reading and arithmetic. [Duncan, Hebridean Island, 100–1]

 

The islanders’ strong desire to secure a permanent local teacher also comes through in a report compiled for the LHA on 31 July 1858 by the Rev. Alexander Davidson (1813–92), Free Church Minister of Harris:

 

The people are too poor to pay regular fees, but they provide Fuel for the Teacher’s use, with milk, fish, eggs, or anything they have. [National Records of Scotland ED18/1494]

 

Not only this, but the previous year the people of Scarp had built a schoolhouse on their own initiative at the south end of Baile Meadhanach [Duncan, Hebridean Island, 101], constructed with stone walls, floored with a ‘Composition of lime & Sand’, and covered with a thatched roof. The LHA itself donated £2 for the windows. Perhaps rather drily, the minister recorded that its ‘Condition as to Repair and Ventilation’ was ‘Tolerably Comfortable’. About fifty to sixty children attended the classes, instructed by a ‘Mr John McDonald, about 30’. Intriguingly, McDonald is recorded as being ‘formerly a Teacher in Cape Breton, N. America’.

 

Seven years after the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act in 1872, state education arrived in the Island of Scarp. On 2 June 1879, the new official teacher, another John MacDonald, took up the post. Born in 1848, John MacDonald had already been a teacher for eight years – he was recorded as such in the 1871 census – and had been certified by the Free Church Training College in Glasgow, which he had attended from February 1873 to December 1875. Lately he had spent over two years, between July 1876 and October 1878, teaching in Shieldaig on the other side of the Minch [NRA ED18/1494]. The family background of this John MacDonald is further elucidated by the Rev. Angus Duncan. MacDonald’s father was shepherd at Crabhadail, on the mainland opposite Scarp:

 

Fear Hùisinis [sheepfarmer Alexander MacRae] had a Highland shepherd living across the Sound at Cravadale, on the far side of Loch na Cleavag. Before the small communities were formed in 1885, his was the only place within six miles of our short ferry in which a stormstayed islander could pass the night. It is, therefore, not surprising that at a certain Communion season, no less than forty of our islanders spent a night in the shepherd’s house beside the loch. That was the age of the ‘shakedown’, when in an emergency all the spare blankets in a house were laid on loose straw on the floor to form beds. So well-known was the custom that the saying, ‘A straw out of each shakedown’ [sop ás gach seid], was applied to anyone who possessed only what he or she could borrow from others.

…

   There is an interesting sequel to such trips [to the Lowlands] in the case of the Highland shepherd to whom I have just referred. Realising the value of a knowledge of English and a good general education, he resolved to have his family educated, no matter what the cost in personal sacrifice. The result was that two of his sons became schoolmasters, one being an Arts graduate of Glasgow University, while the other members of his family were all well-read and spoke fluent English. [Duncan, Hebridean Island, 78]

 

John MacDonald’s posting in Scarp provides the background to the anecdote referred to in Alexander Carmichael’s papers and printed in the previous blog. In our next piece we’ll review what we know about the Teampall, the old church in Scarp that was destroyed to supply building materials for John MacDonald’s new home.

 

Image: Scarp school and schoolhouse (Ian Johnston, www.mountainandsea.blogspot.co.uk)

 

Alexander Carmichael and the Island of Scarp - I

Recently we have heard quite a lot about the now uninhabited island of Scarp, An Scarp, four square miles in extent and separated by a narrow but dangerous channel from the mountainous north-west shoulder of ‘mainland’ Harris. 

Firstly, in the Sir Iain Noble Memorial Lecture at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye, Dr Hugh Dan MacLennan gave a fascinating talk about his mother’s native island, and the summers he spent there as a boy. Again, in a recent programme on BBC Radio Scotland, Remembering the Men of Scarp, we heard Murdo Maclennan, who also spent boyhood summers on the island, describing how he tends the graves of two relatives there who had lost their lives in the Great War.

This made us wonder if Alexander Carmichael had visited Scarp. A quick check in the files showed that, of course, he had:

Teampull an Scarp/Scarpa

’S na h-Earradh. 16 Nov 1881

Teampull an Scarp was pretty entire till a few years ago, [deleted: at least from 6 to 7 six to seven feet of the walls] were standing till then. A schoolmaster came to the island a man with newfangled notions about things and he made the people pull down the ruined walls of the temple to build a chimney for himself in his school house – his fire before then being on the floor of his single roomed dwelling.

A small crogan [little earthen dish or jar] stood in the litter of the little temple. The crogan was small and white, pure white and beautifully fashioned. Every one admired and no one touched the crogan till one night a woman took home the crogan. But the woman was ill at ease for what she did she could not sleep at night and she could not rest by day and at least she repented her deed returned the crogan to the window of the temple. The crogan was no time there when it disappeared this time for ever – cha’n fhacas a dhath no dhreach riamh riamh tuilleadh – cha’n fhacas a dhuine choir riamh riamh tuilleadh a dha[th] no dhreach.

In Scarp Greenock is called Chrianaig instead of Grianaig.

[CW MS 499 fos.642–4]

During the eighteenth century, like the similar Hebridean islands of Eriskay, Scalpay, and Rona, Scarp was a relatively small, relatively infertile and relatively underpopulated outlier in the wider estate economy. Like these other islands, Scarp’s circumstances changed drastically during the great convulsions of the clearances: in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, it became home to a large community of tenant families who had been evicted from the somewhat more fertile ground on the ‘mainland’ opposite. There they would serve as a labour reserve for the huge new sheep farm run by Fear Hùisinis, Alexander MacRae from Kintail, on the lands from which they themselves had been cleared. Even the most cursory glance at the microhistory of North Harris in the Age of Clearance reminds us that issues of colonisation, dispossession, deportation, relocation, and, indeed, diaspora, can be traced not just in the multicultural British Empire overseas, but in a specifically Gaelic milieu within the Scottish Gàidhealtachd itself.

Alexander MacRae (1787–1874) was the second son of Archibald MacRae of Ardintoul (1744–1830) and Janet MacLeod, one of the ten daughters of John MacLeod of Raasay who so impressed Dr Johnson when he stayed with the chief during his tour of the Hebrides in 1773. In Harris tradition, Fear Hùisinis does not enjoy the best of reputations. His father Archibald was apparently invited to the island on the advice of the hated local factor Donald Stewart; the family ties that connected them, and other members of the ‘island gentry’, have been explicated and elucidated in a series of outstanding blog articles by Peter Kerr. 

The clan history, however, describes Alexander MacRae as a ‘good Catholic’, ‘a liberal and large-hearted man’ who ‘[a]s an amateur musician … possessed unusual taste and cultivation, and was an excellent violinist. He had also a keen appreciation of the national music and poetry of the Highlands’. It is perhaps not surprising that among the Tàilich that he brought to Harris were two important informants of Alexander Carmichael, the shepherd and seanchaidh Malcolm MacRae (c. 1806–66) at Abhainn Suidhe, and the dairymaid, singer, and all-round character Mary MacRae (c. 1790–1879) at Caolas Stiatair.

As well as contributing extra labour to Alexander MacRae’s sheep farm, the people of Scarp were expected to scratch a precarious living from the island itself – supplemented for a while by a little summer grazings, and later by a few patches of arable land across the sound. Above all, however, the Scarpaich were expected to turn themselves into fishermen. This they did with aplomb, celebrated for their remarkable seamanship – and oarsmanship – both in the treacherous waters around the island itself, and, for a while, with the long lines out in the open Atlantic.

As with similar islands such as Eriskay, Scalpay, and Rona, initially at least the islanders flourished in spite of the odds. Although the island lacked a deep harbour and safe anchorages, the Scarp fishing industry was able to keep the people alive. But during the century the population increased dramatically: crofts were subdivided to the point that by the time of Alexander Carmichael’s visit in 1881 the island was in danger of becoming severely overcrowded: 213 Scarpaich inhabited three adjacent townships. In the words of their representative to the Napier Commission in 1883, Scarp was ‘more of a pound or a fank than a habitation for them’. As the anecdotes recorded by Alexander Carmichael might suggest, during these years Scarp society was changing dramatically in other respects too.

Images: Scarp, by Nigel Brown: geograph.org.uk; Caolas na Scarp and North Harris, by Seymore Hicks: gb.geoview.info

A Day in the North Harris Hills

Here is Alexander Carmichael enjoying what must have been a rather short and maybe wintry day out in the hills of North Harris with John MacLeod of Tolmachan, Miabhag nam Beann.

North Harris

Stron Ard North Harris Friday 18^th Nov 1881

John Macleod son of Finlay Macleod Gamekeeper Tolmachan Miabhag nam Beann with me. He knows the name of every place all over North Harris.

   Cave under projecting rock. Wall built across projecting rock at mouth of cave. Cave looking down Gleann Miabhaig and over to Lews moors and mountains. Just under Stron Ard the wall is built to join the projecting rock on the top.

   Another cave about 100 yards S.W. of this with all running under projecting rock. The wall of this cave is ?sided in ruins.

   At Stron an Sguirt see a pair of eagles hovering over a small drove of ‘[?dus-grithich] agus daimh[’]. At foot of rock there are numbers of /ptarmigans/tarmachain running among the moraghan – moraghan beinne – shingle moraghan beinne – mountain shingle to distinguish this shingle from moraghan mara sea shingles. The ptarmigans are called gealag bheinn – mountain grilse mountain whiteling – from white winter snow plumage. The bird has a peculiar plaintive hoarse call or cry as if trying to expel something from its throat. I heard ‘tarmachain’ about half a mile about away from me. They rose in three flocks of 15, 25, and 35. They were in a transition state between their summer and winter plumage. The birds rose on the wing each flock following the other and went downhill and out of sight upon a lower level saw a small flock of six gorcocks red grouse moving about and then a baidne ghobhar – a flock of goats scrambling among the rocks and precipices and mountain screes.

   Down in Loch Sguirt saw salmon leaping high up in the air and then falling down in the water with a splash – sometimes the splash made a great noise probably when the fish came down upon his side upon the surface of the water.

   Sometimes the otter is seen chasing the salmon – an interesting sight. The salmon more likely the grilse – gealag mhara – sea-white trout, banag mhara sea-white trout flies through the water now and then rising in the air and coming down with a splash. All in vain however. The dobhar donn – brown otter gains upon the grilse and makes a meal of it.

   If there be a stone standing in the lake or in the river the otter goes to it with his prize and eats the fish sitting or standing upon the stone. While eating the fish the otter closes his eyes and sees nothing and hears nothing. This is the time to have a shot at the otter if within reach.

D’uair ’s e ’n ron is cu ’s an ruaig

Cha teid gearr a chuain as. / gearr=grilse

When the otter [actually seal!] is the hound in the chase

The hare of the ocean cannot escape.

Ullabhall is full of the ‘gealag bheinne’, while Loch Ullabhall is full of ‘gealag mhara’.

   There are no tormachain on Stron an Scuirt, Tormachan probably from torm, toirm, murmur.

Reference: CW217 fos.109–11

Image: Gleann Mhiabhaig agus Sròn Sgùirt – image by Tom Richardson at geograph.org.uk

An Anecdote about Bonnie Prince Charlie

Berneray, Harris / Beàrnaraigh na Hearadh

Anecdotes and legendary accounts of Bonnie Prince Charlie were legion in the Western Isles and Alexander Carmichael was particularly fortunate to have collected quite a few of them. Although Carmichael is given rather scant acknowledgement by William Jolly, a school inspector and close friend, in his book Flora MacDonald in Uist: A Study of the Heroine in Her Native Surroundings (1886), it may be assumed with some degree of certainty that Carmichael would have supplied him with as much historical information as he had then to hand. In any case, this short anecdote tells of the Prince in the isle of Harris and his involvement with the Campbell of Srannda. He is said to have stayed, while on the lam, for six nights in Donald MacLeod’s house. Subsequently, or perhaps during the Prince’s visit, the host felt it expedient to make himself scarce and fled for safety to the nearby Cave of Ulladale. This would have been a wise move given that he did not wish himself to be associated with harbouring Public Enemy Number One at least as seen in the eyes of the Hanoverian Government. Nevertheless, MacLeod had clear Jacobite sympathies – he had been out – otherwise the Prince would not have been invited to have stayed in his house. For his trouble in offering such generosity despite the risks involved Berneray house was threatened by Captain Ferguson to be blown to kingdom come, a warning which came via the intermediary of Iain Laith mac ’ic Choinnich (a Campbell). It would seem that such a dire consequence was avoided as the house, it would seem, remained intact. The personalities mentioned were well-known in Jacobite circles: Dòmhnall mac Iain Òig, was Donald MacLeod (1671–1781), perhaps better known as Old Beneray or Old Trojan and Iain Mòr Liath mac ’ic Choinnich was John Campbell. The Captain Ferguson mentioned was a naval officer who originally hailed from Inverurie, Aberdeenshire and more details of his career can be found in John S. Gibson’s Ships of the ’45: The Rescue of the Young Pretender (1967):

Prince Charlie live[d] 6 nights in Don[ald]
Mac Iain oig[’s] ho[use]. Old Bearn[ar]y
fled to Ua[mh] Ulladail Capt[ain] F[e]rg[uson] set
his guns & casks of powder at the
house. Gen[e]r[al] Campbell came
to see Iain mor lia[th] mac
mhic Coinnich (Campbell)
(Strannd) then blind who told him
of their com[in]g & if he blew up Bearn[ar]y
house that he might levy Harris of
all the Camp[bells]. Gen[eral] took Iain lia[th] out
to see the long chog[aidh]. On their arri[val] F[e]rg[uson]
cursed Campbell insolentl[y] what
kept him.


Reference:
CW90/63, f. 24v.
Image:
Berneray, Harris / Beàrnaraigh na Hearadh.

Druidic Lore in the Hebrides

Druid

It may come as something of a surprise, given that Alexander Carmichael was so immersed in the spiritual and religious life of the Gaels, that it would appear that he did not gather a great deal of oral traditions about druids. Perhaps the real reason behind all of this is that there was not a great amount to be had. The age old connection of the Druids with fairy mounds is made apparent as well as their important rituals that were held during the quarter days. Carmichael, it seems, was rather intrigued for he notes down a woman called Beathag in Berneray whose name, it may be presumed, was passed on to him as someone who knew more about these traditions and may have also been an authority on local lore in Berneray itself. It remains unclear whether Carmichael ever managed to visit this woman for if he had then presumably he would have taken down a great deal more material about this fascinating subject:

Duns in L[ong] Isle erected by the
Druids not tilling – nothing but
siothan & iasg. Worship at
end of each quart[er] met not at
the baile but in a glen & kind[led]
a fire upon a sithein far
fr[om] houses & they went round
the brudh. They held each others
hands & cont[inued] for a trath[?] then
one of the no [number] wou[ld] put into the fire
an iobradh. La[tha] Beall[tainn] La[tha]
Luineasdal La[tha] Samhna La[tha] Ille
Bride. Hence arose the naming of sith
ein & the supposed fires & sup[erstition]. A
Sithein at Fī-leum Stronind. A
mound green in a moss
Croc-sonari a sithein See Beathag
in Bearnara. This is in Bear[nar]y.

Reference:
CW90/58, f. 22v.
Image: Sketch of a Druid.

Song Narrative: Ailein Duinn a shiùbhlainn leat

A famous Gaelic song Ailein Duinn a shiùbhlainn leat (Brown-haired Allan, I would go with you) seems to have captured Alexander Carmichael’s imagination for he recorded around a half a dozen versions of it. One particular reciter from whom he got at least one version of this song was Kate Urquhart (1830–1927), Taransay, wife of Donald MacKinnon (the very same man who had guided Carmichael around the island). The following song narrative behind this tragic accident compares favourably with other versions that are scattered throughout many Gaelic journals and song anthologies. This note is also interspersed with some Campbell family history as, presumably, Anne Campbell, styled Annag nic Dhòmhnaill ’ic Iain Òig, was of this stock:

This song comp[osed] by An[n]a ni[c] Dho[mh]n[u]i[l]l ic Iain
Oig Chaimbeul. Iain Sheilebost was
the Duke of Argyle son cal[led] who came to Har[ris].
It was tho[ugh]t he and MacLeoids son kil[le]d a
young man at col[lege] & they ran here. He
was heir to the Duke his fath[er], but he nev[er]
went back. He went fr[om] Seilebost to Scapa
fr[om] which the Campbells of Scalpa came
The Camp[bells] of Strannd de[scended] fr[om] one
of the Barra breac fam[il]y who came to see
Iain Sheil[ebost] See here. Iain Sheile[bost]
came to Harris ab[ou]t 200 y[ea]rs ago.
The composer of the song was eng[aged] to a ship
Capt[ain] & had been drown[e]d near Scalpa or else
where. When she died soon after of a broken
heart she was to be bur[ied] at Rodail. On the
way thither the funeral boat kept close to land
The one cont[aining] the boy was furth[est] out & a storm
came which sever[ed] it fr[om] the rest They gave them
up for lost & set crainn which fell upon a dying
man An old man said We sill not throw
out the living till we throw out the dead.
They then threw out the corpse when it was
washed in again. They then took out the foot
end and all the body to slid[e] out when it w[en]t
to the bot[tom] & im[mediately] a dead calm en[sued] It was Miss
Camp[bell] own req[uest] that she sh[ou]ld be bur[ied] near
the place where he lover had been lost. She
was the dau[gh]t[er] of Don[ald] Camp[bell] who entertain[ed]
P[rince] Charlie.

References:
CW 116, fos. 2v–3r.
Carmina Gadelica, ii, p. 282.
Gillies, Anne Lorne, Gaelic Songs of Scotland (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), pp. 50–53.
Image: Scalpay, Harris © Copyright David Wake and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

No Rats in Taransay

Satires against vermin such as mice and rats were once a fairly common feature of Gaelic tradition. One such satire Aoir nan Radan – which may have been familiar to Alexander Carmichael given that the composer was a farmer called Livingstone from Lismore – appears in the Rev. Alexander Stewart’s ’Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe (1885), pp. 3–6. Many examples could be given of this interesting genre but this one should suffice in order to give a taste of the whole. The first verse goes like this: 

Mile marbhaisg ort, a radain!
A shlaideare nam badan arbhair;
Cha leòr leat sop ach an lán sguab dheth,
Dh-fag thu ’m bualadh dhomb nêo-tharbhach.
Rinn thu gradan de’m chuid eòrna,
A mhéirlich gur mōr do cháil dheth;
Na’n robh do cheann agam air innean,
’Smise nach tilleadh mo lámh dhiot!

The minister also gives a rather ‘loose’ translation aiming to keep the rhythm of the piece rather than supplying a literal version of ‘A Rat-Expelling Incantation’:

A thousand ills befall thee, greedy rat!
Expertest thief that ever yet was born!
In barn and stack-yard, maugre trap and cat,
Sad is the state of all my stock of corn;
Nor does a handful serve thee, shameless thief,
Unblushing rogue, thou claimest the whole sheaf!

Although the following anecdote does not explicitly indicate whether a satire was used against the rats it may well be taken to be understood. Donald MacKinnon, mentioned by Carmichael, was a crofter and fisherman from Taransay itself, an isle just off the west coast of Harris:

Rats can[no]t live in Taransay, so says Don[ald] MacInnon my
guide & cont[inued] in Lews when he was much troub[led]
with these pests. He made a wish that they were
anywhere The Cail[l]each Leo[tha]sach asked
him what would he give her to send them
away for him. He pro[mised] her so much but gives
her power. She askt [asked] him if he knew of any
pl[ace] where there were no rats. He told her that
a rat was no in Tar[ansay] & that they c[ou]ld not live
there so she sent them here greatly to his
relief – not none reap[peared?]. In 2 y[ea]rs they left not a
single thing in Tar[ansay] He then entreated her
to take them fr[om] his fr[e]inds & send them else
where which she did obligingly did & not one was left here.
Two rats were taken here by some fish[er]men
& in the course of 3 days 1 & in 4 days the 2 we[re]
found dead over at Aird nan Ceall
Plenty of mice here thou[gh]

References:
CW 116, f. 9v

Morrison, John A, ‘Drumming Tunes: A Study of Gaelic Rat Satires’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, LVII (1990–92), pp. 273-364

Image: Rat / Radan

How John Campbell Landed Up in Scalpay, Harris

It is not clear from whom Alexander Carmichael collected this historical anecdote concerning the progenitor of at least some of the Campbells of Scalpay, Harris. Although some of the details may have been exaggerated in the telling before they were committed to paper, there are normally kernels of truth in these type of family origin legends. It is interesting to note that if there is any truth to it the Campbells preferred to marry into Skye families rather than to take local Harris women. Could it have been that they still got preferential treatment as a favour from MacLeod? It may also be of interest that Carmichael notes the finding of a stone with the initials R.C. inscribed upon it and it may be reasonably conjectured that they stand for Roderick Campbell and an attempt may be made to try and tie up the family origin legend with this bit of material culture. Perhaps, though, Carmichael’s surmise in this instance goes a step too far but one of the earliest recorded mentions of these Campbells is a certain John Campbell or Iain Òg, his patronymic in early estate papers is given as John oig mc ean vc Innish or Iain Òg mac Iain mhic Aonghais: John son of John son of Angus. In all likelihood there is probably a connection between these two John Campbells:

The Duke of Argyle[’]s eldest son & MacLeod
of MacLeod’s eldest son were boys together at the Royal
High School Edin[burgh] or at the University. The Duk[e’s]
son & a gille Gal[l]da quar[elled] The latter was big & old
and was ill us[in]g the latter when young MacLeod step[p]e[d]
in to as[sis]t his young friend The 2 gave such a thrash[ing]
to the gille Gal[l]da that he died from the effect and
the two boys got so frightened that they fled home to Dun
veag[an] & then to Harris. The Duke sent for his son
sever[al] times but the would not go. MacLeod to his hon[our]
gave young John Campbell his choice of any
place in Harris & when young MacLeod came
to the pro[perty] he treated the family of his young friend with
much kindness. Of course young Campbell
and his suc[cessors] mar[ried] with the best families
in the isles – always took their wives from
Skye or at all events not fr[om] Harris This was
some[time] ab[ou]t the year 1600. Has the stone at Scalpa
anything to do with this with its letters R[oderick] C[ampbell]
and 1601? It was found at Lochsiphort when
qua[rryin]g for the Lighthouse at Scalpa. It was
und[er] much rubbish in a cleft in the rock and hid[?]
by the site of an old smithy.

References:
CW 116, f. 13v
John Campbell – Iain Og [http://www.virtualhebrides.com/scalpay/scalpay/scalpay_history/campbells/johncampbell.htm]

Image:
Lighthouse on Scalpay, Harris

Carmichael on Kilts

It really should come as no surprise that an inveterate wearer of the kilt, as Alexander Carmichael most certainly was, expressed an opinion or two about the so-called ancient dress of the Highlanders. A lecture entitled ‘Bards and Bardism of the Highlanders’, which Carmichael had been working on over several sessions while he was resident in Cornwall, contains the following aside about kilts which deviates from the main thrust of the rest of his essay. Some of the purple prose pouring from Carmichael’s pen can be discerned from this extract but mercifully this has been kept to a minimum. Perhaps the exuberance of youth as well as a man still honing his skills and reaching to find his own voice are but some of the legitimate excuses for some of Carmichael’s stylistic excesses:

Some are for maintaining that the

kilt is but a modern dress. It is strange

what ready credence anything dem[ons]tr[a]ted to the High[lands]

is received. However distorted the facts and uniform

ed the story if it makes against the High[lands]

it receives easy credence. And on the

other hand again any thing said as

an antidote to this however respectable

the authority and well confined is

received with distrust.

There are many indisputable facts

that confirm the antiquity of the

kilt. There is an abbey in the Island

of Harris which is believed to be one of the

oldest pieces of architectural remains

in Scotland. The abbey is called Saint

Clemens = “Cill-a-Chliamain.”

Among curious figures on the

tower of this old abbey is a sculp-

tured figure of a Highlander. The

dress is exactly like that worn at the

present day. The kilt comes to the

cap of the knee while the rest of

the dress corresponds with that now worn.

Another impression is that tartan

is not old. This is another erroneous

impression. Tartan is old. In a Gaelic

M.S. of the 10th century the term breacan

literally chequered tartan is expressly

used. It is some what strange that

the English should pronounce the word

plaid more like the original G[aelic] pronounci

ation than the Scotch do. The English

pronounce the word as if written plad

while the Scotch pronounce it according

to the orthography. The original of the

word was plaide now confined

to the blanket. In ancient times when the

Highlanders were more given to hunt-

ing and fishing and battles and

perchance to creach lifting than they

are today their plaids joined their

blankets. Rolled up on these they slept securely

their bed the purple heath[er] and the curtains

the blue azure vaults of heaven.

It is likely that Carmichael is referring to a carved panel inset in the Irish manner (and possibly earlier than the actual church) which includes a kilted figure, that had formerly been mounted on the medieval parapet on Tùr Chliamainn or St Clement’s Tower as can be seen in the above image of Rodel Church, isle of Harris.

References:
CW 107, fol. 5r–6r
Image: Rodel Church, Harris

A Long Time Healing

During the past few weeks the Carmichael Watson Project has begun to compile capsule biographies of the people recorded by Alexander Carmichael. These biographies represent part of a wider indexing process using the Encoded Archival Context (EAC) standard, in order to record, preserve, systematise, and make available information about the creators of the archival materials in Carmichael’s collection. We are, apparently, the first university-based project in Britain to employ EAC. Over the next few months we intend to publish various blogs based upon the life-stories of the many different people Carmichael met during his career as folklore collector.

Sgeulachd Chois’ Ó Céin, or the Story of the Healing of O’Kane’s Leg, was a story celebrated throughout the Gàidhealtachd for its length and complexity. The eponymous anti-hero of this portmanteau tale had his leg broken in 24 places, and each break could only be healed by a story being told. Such a starting point offered the skilled storyteller an opportunity to relate and fuse together a whole series of well-known romances over several nights. We have several tellings of the tale of various lengths, but by far the most famous recording is the sustained 30,000-word, 142-page narration of Lachlan MacNeill, a shoemaker from Islay then living in Paisley, written down on 22 March 1871 by Hector MacLean with John Francis Campbell.

Alexander Carmichael would have been well aware of the tale’s existence: indeed, it became something of a holy grail for those involved in John Francis Campbell’s collecting project which was to come to fruition in the four volumes of Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1860–2). The minister of Lismore, the Rev. Donald MacNicol, had written of Gaelic tales in his Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Hebrides (London: T. Cadell, 1779):

One of those, in particular, is long enough to furnish subject of amusement for several nights running. It is called Scialachd Choise Ce, or Cian O Cathan’s Tale; and though Scialachies, or tellers of tales by profession, are not now retained by our great families, as formerly, there are many still living, who can repeat it from end to end, very accurately. [p. 322]

It must have been while Carmichael was researching lore in Lochalsh and Kintail while employed as a gauger in Carbost, Skye, at the beginning of the 1860s, that he first heard of a man who was able to recite Sgeulachd Chois’ Ó Céin. The problem was, the seanchaidh was now working as a shepherd in the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

Malcolm MacRae [Calum MacRath] was born around 1805, son of Murdo MacRae, crofter, and Barbara, née MacRae. By the 1860s he was employed as a shepherd at Abhainn Suidhe, North Harris under Alexander MacRae from Kintail. The latter, known as Fear Hùisinis from his house at Caolas Stiatar, was one of the biggest farmers in the Outer Hebrides at the time. Alexander MacRae had taken a number of fellow Tàilich or Kintail people over to Harris to work for him. Malcolm, a fellow MacRae, was probably among them.

In a letter to John Francis Campbell written on 18 October 1861 [NLS Adv. 50.2.1 fo.360], Carmichael tells how he had tried to meet Malcolm MacRae to record ‘Sgeul na Coise Cein’, probably the previous month, but all in vain: the weather was so bad he had to wait a whole week then leave Harris without seeing him. The implication is, of course, that MacRae was busy working with the sheep and lambs the entire time.

Carmichael did not give up. Barely six months after he had taken up his post with the excise in the Outer Hebrides, he returned to Harris. On the evening of Wednesday 5 July 1865 he recorded Malcolm MacRae telling ‘Sgeul Chois O Céin’. Carmichael clearly had to find MacRae at his work: he notes as an adjunct to the story:

Sgriobhte ri taobh tomain na grobain anns Bheinne-tuath anns na h-Earradh

‘Written beside a little hillock or knoll in Beinn a Tuath in Harris’: probably Mullach or Mulla fo Thuath in North Harris is the mountain he meant. It’s interesting that Carmichael took a new notebook with him to record MacRae’s story, probably to give himself as much space as possible to write down the great Sgeulachd Chois Ó Céin. In actual fact, MacRae’s version was only a truncated episode of barely 2,400 words: whether because this was all the seanchaidh knew, or because the circumstances weren’t favourable for a longer rendition, we cannot tell. Carmichael would record another, relatively short, version of the tale from the ‘fine old sgialaiche’ Patrick Smith of Leth-mheadhanach, South Uist, on 25 March 1871.

Malcolm MacRae died barely a year later, suddenly on 26 May 1866 at Ardhasaig, Isle of Harris. In a note penned over the story later, Carmichael writes that: ‘He was after taking some bread and milk when he leant back in his chair and expired’. The death certificate states ‘Disease of the Heart’. Malcolm MacRae was married to Jessie MacRae: maybe their marriage is that recorded in the parish of Strath, Skye, on 13 March 1838, between Malcolm MacRae, Dornie, and Janet MacRae, Kyleakin. They had at least one son, Alexander, who recorded his father’s death. Carmichael describes Malcolm MacRae as ‘an honest decent man’.

References:

CW MS 105 fos.1–10; also MS 119 fos.23–33.

National Library of Scotland, Adv. MSS 50.1.10 fos.81–2; 50.1.13, fo.442; 50.2.2 fos.55, 192; 50.2.3

Craig, K. C. (ed.). Leigheas Cas Ó Céin (Stirling: for the editor, 1950).

Rev. John Gregorson Campbell (ed.). ‘Sgeulachd Casa Cein – The Healing of Keyn’s Foot’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xiv (1887–8), 78–100.

Henderson, Rev. George (ed.). ‘Sgeulachd Cois’ O’ Cein’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xxv (1901–3), 179–265.

MacInnes, Rev. Duncan (ed.). ‘Coise Céin: Koisha Kayn, or Kian’s Leg’, Folk and Hero Tales (London: David Nutt, Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Argyllshire Series ii, 1890), 206–77.

Mackay, John G. (ed.). More West Highland Tales (Edinburgh and London: Oliver & Boyd, 1940), 68–73.

Nutt, Alfred, ‘The Campbell of Islay MSS. at the Advocate’s Library, Edinburgh’, Folk-Lore, i(3) (Sep., 1890), 373–7.

Image:
Thanks to Dr Kate Davies, at needled.wordpress.com, for her picture of the Harris summits.

John MacLeod – Expert Swordsman

In one of his very last fieldwork notebooks Alexander Carmichael collected a narrative on 31 August 1909 about an expert swordsman called John MacLeod. Unfortunately, no dates are given but it may be assumed that the man commemorated on the tomb was a figure of note and was probably one of the Gaelic élite. It also shows that Carmichael’s tastes were truly eclectic and almost nothing it seems was too trivial not to be noted down.

John Macleod
Had been in the war cam[e]
home full of praise and
honour. He had been in the
beinn-sheilg and when
a snow storm came on and
he was smothered beside his
own garden wall close
to his house – He was
a famous swordsman
the most famous in his
day – He could cut the button
from the neck of his opponents
shirt. His tomb is in this
church at Rodail with the
figure of a man as with
sword in full length on
his stone. Hewed in Geo-
Crab Harris

It seems likely that this story forms the background to the tomb of a knight in armour that still can been seen at the southern transept of St Clement’s Church, Rodel, Harris. The tomb is believed to commemorate John MacLeod of Minginish (near Talisker in Skye), clan leader of the MacLeods from 1551 until his death in 1557. If this identification is correct, and there is perhaps no reason to dismiss it, then this John MacLeod was known as Iain a' Chuail Bhàin (John of the Fair Locks) who was embroiled in a leadership struggle for the headship of the MacLeods for the bloodthirsty chief, Iain Dubh MacLeod, massacred Iain a' Chuail Bhàin's descendants. The only one to survive was Norman, a nephew of the last chief, Iain Dubh, who was being fostered at the time in Harris by a cadet of his clan. John MacLeod was succeeded by the representation of the MacLeods of Waternish by his grandson, Norman MacLeod.

References:
CW 117, fol. 17v
Image: Tomb of John MacLeod, St Clement’s Church, Rodel, Harris