Ossian Collection > Macdonald bards from mediaeval times

Nach co-ion da 'blii 'caig rium
Is ri cabaire bàird.
Am busaire ronnach,
Fear nam brusg-shùilean musach,
Cha 'n fhasa do thuigsinn
Na plubartaich càil.
Ged tha thu 'm fhuil dhirich,
Nàile, cumaidh mi sios thu,
Cha bhi coille gun chrionaich
Gu dilinn a' fas.
Fiiigheal fior dheireadh feachd thu,
Cha 'n fhiach le each ac' thu :
Chaill thu d' ingnean 's a' Cheapaich
'Sgriobadh prais' agus chlàr.
Fios bhuamsa dhuit, 'Ille,
Chaill thu dualchas do chinnidh,
Gu bheil thu air nfaire
Làn de dh' inisgean bàird.
Mi cho saor de na ronnan
Ri aon beò dhe do shioinneadh ;
Nàile, rinn thu breug shoilleir
Ann am follais do chàch.
Ma 's ann ormsa mar dhimeas,
'Ghabh thu 'choill as a crionaich,
larr an doire na 's isle
Bho iochdar do chlàir.
Mur bhi dhomh?a mac d' athar,
Is ann da 'tha mi 'g athadh,
Nàile, chuirinn ort athais
A tha fàisgte 'nad chàil.
In the next encounter with Iain Loni, Donald
Gruamach seems to have had the best of it, as
the former descended to abusing his adversary.
Donald Gruamach spoke as follows of the famous
John :—
Thugadh greis air Greumaich leat
Gu'n euchdan a chur suas ;
Is thugadh greis air Duibhnich leat,
'S air muinntir an taoibh tuath,
Cha'n fheil feum do Dhòmhnallach
Ri 'bheò 'bhi ort a' luaidh,
'S 6 donnal a' choin bhadhailf ud
'Dh' fhàg bodhar mo dhà chluais.
Iain Loni's reply has not been recorded in full,
but the first line of it shows that his feelings must
have been very bitter ; it runs thus :—
A shean chràidhneach mhòr nan smugaidean !
The rest would have been equally bitter and
fully as oftensive.
t Wandering dogs.
RESIDENCES OF ALASTAIR CARRACH,
IAIN LOM, AND DOMHNULL BAN
A' BHOCAIN.
j The first residence of Alastair Carrach was at a
I place near Torlundy and Inverlochy, still called
Toni-a-Charrich. There is a small hamlet there
now ; it is on Lord Abinger's property.
Iain Lom's home was at a place called
" Clachaig," between Tiilloch and Moy, between
the burn of Allt-a'-Chaorunn and Urachar, a short
distance above the present high road. Old Mr
MacArthur of Fort Augustus asserts that the
charge of cowardice always preferred against Iain
Lom was quite untrue. The reason that he never
drew a sword in battle Avas because in his early
youth he had the misfortune to kill his brother in
a fray near Loch Tay, where the two brothers
were on different sides, without either being
aware of it. And when Iain Lom found his sword
had pierced his brother's heart he vowed he would
never again draw a sword in battle, and his
refusal to do so on later occasions has been the
only motive for ascribing cowardice to him, and
the following verse of a song is quoted as proof
of the correctness of the story : —
Mo sgriob do thaobh Loc-h Tàigh.
Ged a dh' fhàg mi ann m' atliair
Cha b'e sid 'rinn mo sgaradh
Ach an ailt 'rinn mo chlaidheamh 'am bràthair.
("Ad armean " another version says.)
In consequence of his activity in getting the
Keppoch murderers brought to justice he made
many enemies among their partizans, and was so
much persecuted that he had to leave Lochaber
and take refuge in Kintail, as already
mentioned ; and when on his way back
to his native country, he took ill
and died at Càrn - a - Dhotaidh, now
called Auchteraw, near Fort Augustus, and was
taken to Lochaber and buried at Cille Chaorrill
on Tom Aingeal, not in the place where Eraser
Macintosh placed his monument, which the
Lochaber people say is the tomb of Domhnull
MacFhionnlaidh, the author of the "Comhachag."
In Rev. A. MacLean Sinclair's edition of John
Lom's poems it is stated, p. 10, that he viewed the
battle from an elevated spot that overlooked the
castle of Inverlochy, which was occupied liy fifty
of Argyll's musketeers, and in a letter to me he
remarks that^