Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 4, 1896

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
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THE LORDS °f LOCHABER
T.V.!lACOO!SALn .
PaKT X, AXASDAIR BOLOINUE VIII., 1547-59 —
The Battle of Boloinne — Ranald IX —
He assists the Bjng, and is received into
KOTAL FAVOUR AlASDAIR-NAN ClEAS X.
"The Chieftain's Candlesticks.''
(CoiUiiiut'il I'l-dtii jiage 39).
<B3^lHIEF ALA.SDAIR VIII., of Keppoch,
IrliWi succeeded his father about the year
XS-ii 1.517. Two years afterwards he fought
a battle against the Camerons at a place called
Bolomne, a little above Keppoch House, at the
back of !Mull lioy, where he received wounds,
from which he never recovered, after greatly
distinguishing himself in the fight. The
Camerons were defeated, and their chief,
Lochiel, slain. Alasdair being unable to
follow, his half-brother, John Dubh, led the
victorious MacDonells after the flying
Camerons. From this battle he got the name
of Alasdair Boloinne, by which he was ever
afterwards known. He must have suffered
long from his wounds, for it was some years
after the battle that he is said to have gone to
Kingussie to be treated for their effects by a
famous bi itanist said to be resident there at the
time. He died while in the hands of the
botanist, in the year 1559. The family tradition
says that his wounds were poisoned by his
■would-bf- doctor, who was bribed by Alasdair's
enenii(is to do so. He was buried in Kingussie.
Tradition credits him as being no less distin-
guished as a sportsman than he was as a
■warrior The author of the " Comhachag,"
who liv,(l at the same tuue, says of him: —
" Alasdair Mac Raonuill Mhor,
'S trie a mharbh 's a' bheinii na feidh,
'S a leanadh fad air an toir ;
Mo dhoigh gur e 'n Domlinullacli treun."
He died unmarried, and was succeeded by
his brother Ranald.
Although Ranald IX., of Keppoch, only
succeeded his brother in the year 1559, he was
for several years previous to this date the real
head of the clan, Alasdair, the nominal chief,
being a sufferer from the effects of the wounds
he received at the Battle of Boloinne. During
all those years Ranald was a strong adherent
of the King, and took an active part at the
head of tbe clan, quelling disturbances under
the Royal banner of James V. It is extremely
improbable that a Keppoch chief would have
taken a course such as this, one so opposed to
the line of conduct adopted by his predecessors,
were there not some understanding of favours
to come between them. Indeed, we have
evidence that there was some such under-
standing. Nor did the death of the King,
resulting from grief over the defeat of his army
on the occasion of the unfortunate rout of
Solway Moss, put an end to the promises of
Royal favour. Shortly before the assassination
of the Regent ^Murray, Mackintosh of Mackin-
tosh was made to promise that he would grant
to Keppoch such titles to the lands occupied
by himself and his clan as would seem fair and
just to him — the Regent* But the death of
* Records of Privy Ojuii.;il ai tuinjjui. urugury
page 208.