A Clan Battle fought at Lagan a’ Chatha

Glenlyon, Perthshire / Gleann Lìomhann, Siorramachd Pheairt

Highland history is replete with legendary accounts of clan battles from small skirmishes to large-scale fights. Outright violence or the mere threat of violence in the Highlands never seems to have been too far away but for the fact that this would be overstating the case. Perhaps such an image was partly inspired by the Highlanders’ martial spirit which was very much to the fore particularly because of their famous regiments which pushed, kept control and consolidated the boundaries of the British Empire. Be that as it may, in comparison to the Lowlands of an earlier period, blood-feuds were more or less on par with those that took place in the Highlands. It is rather surprising that Alexander Carmichael did not take down more than he did about the legendary accounts of clan battles for they were the stock in trade of most reciters who had any kind of historical bent. This example, set in Perthshire (specifically Glenlyon), was taken down by Carmichael from an unnamed source and name-checks those clans that held sway in this part of the Highlands:

Gleann Li-un
Name
Cama ghleann du[bh] nan clach.
32 miles long. Battle fo[ugh]t between
the Robertson Campbells & Mac
Gregor & the Clann Imhear.
Killed the Macivors out[right?]. They then
went to Breadalbane. The Mac
grigors came down from Bun
rainich. They battle at Lagan
a chatha & stopped at Ceann
Chnoc at Cainis nan cam.
The men washed themselves
& arms at Ford Li’un & the river
ran red with blood. There
a man said. Bho la[tha] nighe
nan arm bith Li’un mar
ainm air Diubh. Srath
Dubh-uisg. Where the
river ran before – silent water
remains there still –
where the river ran before.
My informant killed two otters
here with one shot.

Reference:
CW1/38, f. 11v.
Image: Glenlyon, Perthshire / Gleann Lìomhann, Siorramachd Pheairt.

Rockall: An Islet on the Edge of the World

Rockhall / Rocabarraigh

The tiny rocky islet of Rockall or Rocabarraigh lying some 188 miles from Soay, the easternmost island of the St Kilda archipelago, has been claimed by United Kingdom on a number of occasions. The ownership of the islet is still a matter of dispute as it is claimed by Denmark (for the Faroe Islands), Iceland, Ireland and, as mentioned, the United Kingdom. In the following tradition, noted down by Alexander Carmichael around 1872 from, it would seem, an anonymous source, the tale has all the hallmarks of a mythological island – the title probably refers to a sandy isle – that had been mistaken for the rather rocky and extremely isolated islet practically in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean:

Eilean Gaineacha
A man coming fr[om] abro[oad] & he saw
a black spot bad om[en] & he near[ed] & what was
this but & iallain an t sao[gha]il &
f[indin]g above a small isl[e]. He put out
the punt A large ford ran
across the isl[e] & a stac of fish
bones on the ea[st] side ford. He del[iberated]
that he sh[oul]d have some for din[ner] in
such a pl[ace] He left with the int[ent]
of ret[urnin]g He came to Engl[and] Ere
he could ret[urn] went came in &c
know[ing] the wild[ness] of the pl[ace] with
out anchorage ex[cept] the ford
He & oth[er]s ret[urned] & when th[e]y came
no isl[e] was vis[ible]. They were mock
ing him & they began sounding &
found nothing but rock
& this they called Rockall.

Reference:

CW90/71, f. 29r.

Image: Rockall or Rocabarraigh taken from Harvie-Brown, J. A. & Buckley, T. E., A Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides (Edinburgh: David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1899), facing p. lxxxvi.