The Barons of Bachuill Author(S): Alexander Carmichael Source: the Celtic Review, Vol
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The Barons of Bachuill Author(s): Alexander Carmichael Source: The Celtic Review, Vol. 5, No. 20 (Apr., 1909), pp. 356-375 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30070188 Accessed: 27-06-2016 09:16 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Celtic Review This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 09:16:58 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 356 THE CELTIC REVIEW the oral tradition of our people, which were it not for his incessant labours, would have passed away on the stream of time. The translations are on the whole accurate and literaL There are cryptic utterances in the originals which would not yield readily to translation, but Dr. Carmichael has a wonderfully sympathetic insight as well as much persever- ance. Archaic expressions are also found which have no modem equivalents. The tracings of capital letters, a fine work of art, and faithful to the types, as readers of Celtic MSS. can verify, are due to his wife, to whose sympathy, encouragement, and help Dr. Carmichael's achievements owe very much. It was fitting that Dr. Carmichael's work should be honoured not only by the University but by Celts of all ranks and interests, who took advantage of the occasion to present him with the robes, hood, and cap of a Doctor of Laws of Edinburgh University. THE BARONS OF BACHUILL ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL THE island of Lismore is situated in the district of Lorne and the sheriffdom of Argyle. It lies in the Linn of Lorne opposite Oban, trending along towards Appin. Including the islet of Musdal, which is separated from the main island by a shallow strait-a few feet deep, and a few yards wide at low water--Lismore is ten and one-tenth miles in length and averages about one mile in breadth. The geological formation of Lismore is limestone with the exception of two beds of whin and several dykes of trap. The whin is at Cilleandrais and Portcharrain, two con- tiguous farms, and the traps cross the island at nearly equal intervals along its length. These traps merge under the sea at Lismore and again emerge on the two opposite coasts. Probably, however, the most interesting and instructive geological feature of Lismore is the ancient sea-margin by This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 09:16:58 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE BARONS OF BACHUILL 357 which it is surrounded. This margin is of irregular width, from one to a hundred yards, and in one place is one thousand yards wide. It is of uniform level throughout though rough and rocky on the surface. A sea escarpment rises fifty feet above this terrace and is considerably honeycombed-in some places deeply indented-by the action of the sea. Some of the deeper indentations penetrate the rock to unknown distances forming deep caves, one of which is alleged to pierce the island right through. This, however, can only be conjecture. A story is told of a piper and his dog having entered this cave-Uamh-Chraidh-at Bailegrunail, intending to come out at Uamh-an-duine, which is at Creaganaich. It is alleged that the piper was heard playing right across the island, the music ascending through earth-holes-talamh-tuill-on the way, the burden of his lament being:- Mis air airin baidh 'us burrail Measg nan glumag eagalaich Uamh Chraidh am Baile-ghrunail Uamh-an-Duin' an Creaganaich. I drowning and howling Amongst the horrid pools The Pain Cave in Bailegrunail The Man Cave in Creaganaich. The dog came out at Uamh-an-Duine hairless and sightless, but the playing ceased and the piper never emerged. The conclusion is that the cave contained impassable pools, in one of which the piper was drowned. Similar stories are told of many other places from Ireland to India and from Britain to Japan, and probably with as much foundation in fact. The present sea-escarpment rises six feet or so above sea- level. Its face is fairly vertical and singularly honeycombed. Some of the old sea margin contains half-fossilised masses of shells caked together like the conglomerate rock of the coast of Lorne-some of the shells simply cemented together by the edges in the most delicate and fantastic manner like Indian This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 09:16:58 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 358 THE CELTIC REVIEW filigree. In some places the face of the escarpment is still studded with limpets, whelks, both black and white, and mussels like the rocks of the shore below, against which the sea now beats. And irresponsively cold the heart and irre- deemably cold the imagination that would not be moved at the sight of the lowly crustaceans thus still clinging in death after unknown ages to their sapless mother rock, like a dead child clinging to its dead mother's breast. The name Lismore is variously interpreted lios, a fort, and mor, great-great fort; lios, a garden-the great garden; and slios, a plain-the great plain. The name may mean 'the great fort' from the number of forts in the place, the remains of which are still more or less visible. It may mean 'the great garden' from the fertility of the soil, the island having been the garden and granary of the great Lords of the Isles when these semi-royal nobles held sway over the whole Highlands and Islands of Scotland and possessed a house and the half of Alban-' tigh is leth Albain.' Or, it may mean 'the great plain' from its low-lying position in the midst of the sea surrounded by mountains. Sliosmore is not a form of the name now known to the people of the place, though curiously enough it is the form used by the people of the Outer Isles when speaking of this island. And this form receives countenance from the disputa- tion alleged to have occurred between Saint Columba and Saint Moluag. It is said that Columba and Moluag were brothers. Each wished to possess Lismore and to make it the centre of his missionary labours, for there was much emulation among the saints of old-striving who should win most souls to Christ. The brothers arranged to run a race and that the first to land should possess the island. They left together, each saint with his crew of clerics singing the Psalms of David while they rowed their coracles as the Highland boatmen still sing their iorraim-boat-songs. When approaching the island, the brethren still straining at their oars and the saints chanting their psalms, Moluag lifted This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 09:16:58 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE BARONS OF BACHUILL 359 his axe and cut off the little finger of his left hand, and throw- ing it ashore exclaimed: 'My witness be to God and man, my flesh and blood are on the land, Columba beloved'- 'M' fhianuis air Dia agus daoine m' fhuil is m' fheoil air tir, a Chaluim chaoimh.' Upon seeing the devotion of his brother Columba turned aside the bow of his boat and did not land. It is alleged that he tried to depreciate the island as represented in the following dialogue:- COLUM-CILLE. Sliosmor mar ainm an eilean. MOLUAG. Ma's a slios mor gu m'a slios tarbhach. COLUM-CILLE. Slocach, cnocach, creagach. MOLUAG. Brioghar, mioghar, preasach. COLUM-CILLE. Faobhar a chloich bhos a chionn. MOLUAG. A goimhe foipe. COLUX-CILLE. Fearna mar chonadh da. MOLUAG. Gabhail mar a choingeal da. COLUMBA. The great plain be the name of the island. MOLUAG. If great the plain, great be the fruit. COLUMBA. Hollow-full, knoll-full, rock-full. MOLUAG. Fruit-full, sweet-full, shrub-full. COLUMBA. Be the edges of its rocks above. MOLUAG. Be their venom under. COLUMBA. Green alder be its fuel. MOLUAG. May it burn like the candle. Embracing and blessing his brother and bidding him pro- sperity through time and eternity Columba proceeded north- wards, preaching the gospel and building churches, till he reached the palace of Brude, King of the Picts, near Inverness. When Brude heard that Columba was approaching, he was sore afraid, and barred his iron gates against him, and appealed to his gods for protection. But Columba prayed to his God against the gods of Brude, and immediately the iron bars fell down, and the iron gates of Brude opened wide, and Columba walked in, and so the King was converted to the Christian faith. During the Norse occupation the western isles of Scotland, together with the Orkney and Shetland Isles on the north This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 09:16:58 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 360 THE CELTIC REVIEW and the Isle of Man on the south, were ruled ecclesiastically from Norway.