Series 1 > Tours in Scotland 1747, 1750, 1760

WESTERN ISLES.
93
In Jura they have a mineral water good for the Stomach
and stone; they live to a great age. One of the name of
M£Clain died here in the last Century who had lived 180
Christmasses in the same house—a fact that ought to be
enquired into before it be fully credited; and they live also to
a great age in the Isle of Scarba.
In Ila1 there is plenty of Lead and Limestone.
In Lough Finglan,2 in the middle of it, lived Macdonald
King of the Isles, the ruins of whose Castle is still to be seen.
Here is a mineral water.
In Oransa there was a monastery dedicated to St. Columbus.
In Colonsa I was informed there was a monastery Dependant
on I-Colmkill.
It is supposed that on the north end of Canney 3 is Iron or
Loadstone, because the Needle does not answer there.
In Egg are several Mineral waters. It belongs to the
Macdonalds, and all the inhabitants are roman Catholics as
they are in South-Wist, and Barra, Kismul and Benbecula, and
there are many in the shire of Inverness.
In Skye are seven parishes and great remains of the Druids.
Opposite to Skye at Bernera in Glanily are two round towers,4
they are about 60 feet in Diameter, and built with double
walls between which is a winding ascent without steps as I wa&
informed, but find they are the same as some others which I
shall describe in Sutherland. They are engraved in Gordon’s
Journey over Scotland who describes them, and saies there
have been winding stairs up to the top, that they are 33
feet high, the two walls and passages twelve feet and
they are divided into four stories. Here they dry fish
without salt, and in some islands, near the Sea they salt sea
fowl with Kelp ashes. Ambergras has been found on some
of these Coasts.
In Lingay 5 they have Swans, and salt their beef in skins,
which they say keep it fresher than wood.
1 Islay. 2 Loch Finlaggan, on an islet in it are the ruins.
3 Canna, Compass Hill.— Vide Old St at. Ac., vol. xvii. p. 287.
4 Castles Troddan and Tellve, Gordon’s Itin., Sept., PI. 65, p. 167. See
Anderson’s Scot, in Pagan Times, 1883, pp. 181, 182, for description of these
Brochs in the Valley of Glenbeg in Glenelg, miswritten Glanily.
5 Lingay Island, north of Uist, written Sangay on p. 91.