Description of the Western Isles of Scotland

A cave on Garbh Eilean in the Shiant Isles. In 1549, Donald Monro wrote that "through the arch we used to row or sail with our boats, for fear of the horrible break of the sea that is on the outward side of the point".[Note 1]

Description of the Western Isles of Scotland is the oldest known account of the Hebrides and the Islands of the Clyde, two chains of islands off the west coast of Scotland.[3] The author was Donald Monro, a clergyman who used the title of "Dean of the Isles" and who lived through the Scottish Reformation. Monro wrote the original manuscript in 1549, although it was not published in any form until 1582 and was not widely available to the public in its original form until 1774. A more complete version, based on a late 17th-century manuscript written by Sir Robert Sibbald, was first published as late as 1961.[4] Monro wrote in Scots and some of the descriptions are difficult for modern readers to render into English. Although Monro was criticised for publishing folklore and for omitting detail about the affairs of the churches in his diocese, Monro's Description is a valuable historical account and has reappeared in part or in whole in numerous publications, remaining one of the most widely quoted publications about the western islands of Scotland.[5]

The tomb effigy of Domhnall Mac Gilleasbuig, crown tenant of Finlaggan during the mid 16th century[6]

Monro also wrote a brief description of the five main branches of Clan Donald that existed in his day under the title "The Genealogies Of The Chief Clans Of The Iles", and this work was included when Description was first published as a stand-alone volume in 1805. The Sibbald manuscript also contains details about the "Council of the Isles" that operated from Eilean na Comhairle in Loch Finlaggan on the island of Islay. This is the most detailed extant account of the supreme judiciary body that had existed under the Lordship of the Isles until its demise in the late fifteenth century.[7]

  1. ^ Monro (1961) p. 85
  2. ^ Monro (1774) No. 175
  3. ^ Munro (1961) p. 1
  4. ^ Monro (1961) p. v
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Munro37 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Cast of a grave slab from Finlaggan, Islay, Inner Hebrides". National Museums of Scotland. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  7. ^ Munro (1961) p. 95


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