Matheson Collection > Macleods of Dunvegan from the time of Leod to the end of the seventeenth century

48 THE MACLEODS OF DUNVEGAN
of Man in 131 1, one year after the death of Anthony de
Bee, Prince Bishop of Durham, to whom the Isle of Man
had been granted by Edward i. in 1298. It is possible
that this Gilbert lost his office in Man in the time of the
new bishop, Richard de Kellan, that he came to Skye,
and was made seneschal of Dunvegan.
This is pure conjecture, but the dates tally, as the
adventure related in the MS, probably took place
about 1320.
In the sixteenth century an Alanus MacKaskyll was a
scribe in a monastery at Perth.
" The MacCaskiUs were for several generations the
lieutenants of the Chief, both by sea and land, and held
large possessions under the MacLeods as commanders of
the galleys or birlinns, and one of them always accom-
panied the Chief as his henchman, clad in full armour.
For a signal piece of service rendered by one of these
henchmen, a Chief of the MacLeods decreed that, when-
ever a MacCaskill was buried, a monumental stone,
having a warrior in full armour, with the proper emblems
of the clan cut upon it, should be put up over the grave.
In almost every churchyard throughout the Isles these
are still to be seen, and, from their close resemblance to
each other, both in design and execution, there can be
little doubt of their having been manufactured at the
same place and by the same artists."
These stones were carved by the monks of lona. They
worked in a cave in the Ross of Mull, and sold their work
for the good of the Church. The cave in which the
monks worked was closed by one of the Dukes of ArgyU.
I am informed that all the MacCaskill tombs bear on
them the man in armour, but it is doubtful whether this
family had an exclusive right to use this device.
" Malcolm as he advanced in years became enormously
corpulent, for which reason he was called Galium Reamhar
Math, ' Good Fat Malcolm.' The Memorial of 1767 says