Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

•V
THE
Celtic Magazine,
2^0. XLIX. NOVEMBEE, 1879. Vol. V.
HISTOEY OF THE MACDONALDS,
AND
THE LOEDS OF THE ISLES.
By the Editor.
I.
To write a fiill, authentic, and, at the same time, a popular history of this
ancient and illustrious family is no easy task. Its earlier annals are
much obscured, and it is difficult to decide between the various contra-
dictory accounts given of it by the earlier chroniclers. The researches of
Skene, Gregory, and others have, however, made the task much easier,
and the result more trustworthy than it could otherwise have been.
Gregory's " History of the Western Islands And Isles of Scotland," now
scarce, is an invaluable guide, and will be largely taken advantage of in
the following pages, down to 1625. The object of that work, to quote
the author himself, " is to trace the history of the territories once owned
by the great Lords of the Isles, from the time of the downfall of that
princely race, in the reign of James IV. of Scotland, until the accession
of Charles I. to the throne of Great Britain."
It is not our intention to speculate at length on the different races
which are variously stated to have originally occupied the HiglJands and
Islands of Scotland. Those Avho desire to enter upon that subject wiU
find various and divergent authorities to consult, which need not here be
referred to. In this work we shall get on solid and authentic historical
ground as soon as possible, and leave speculation as to the origin and pre-
historic annals of the Clan to those who delight in such attractive but
generally useless inquiry. Mr Skene holds that the INlacdonalds are of
Celtic, or at all events of mixed Celtic origin, that is, descended from the
Gallgall, or Gaelic pirates, or rovers, who are said to be so described to
distinguish them from the Xorwegian and Danish Fingall and Duhh-ghall,
or white and black strangers or rovers. He maintains that they are of a
purely Pictish descent, not even mixed with the Dabiadic Scots. Gregory
says that " the earliest inhabitants of the "Western Isles or Ebudes (cor-
ruptly Hebrides) were probably a portion of the Albanich, Caledonians,
or Picts. In some of the Southern Islands, particularly in Isla, this race
must have been displaced or overrun by the Dalriads on their first settle-