{"id":650,"date":"2016-04-12T23:58:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T23:58:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-03-21T21:13:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T21:13:27","slug":"dair-a-bhitheas-mi-n-asaint-is-leodach-mi-a-tale-of-two-iains-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/dair-a-bhitheas-mi-n-asaint-is-leodach-mi-a-tale-of-two-iains-part-1","title":{"rendered":"DAIR A BHITHEAS MI ‘N ASAINT, IS LE\u00d2DACH MI: A Tale of Two Iains PART 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

(The Gaelic Dialect of Assynt)<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\nSGEUL <\/b>TALE<\/div>\n
I left Taobh Mhealnais<\/b> (Melness) feeling decidedly better than
\nwhen I arrived. If nothing else, I had been there, spent time with two
\nwonderful people who spoke from out of the marrow of the place and even if heaven
\nforbid a revival of the dialect never took place I could say with certainty that
\nI drank of the Melness spring while it still ran, trickle or no.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My next priority was to get myself a room for
\nthe night and spend an hour furiously scribbling everything I could remember
\ninto my notebook. It might all come out turach
\nair tharach <\/b>(topsy-turvy) as they say in Lios M\u00f3r<\/b> (Lismore), but I didn\u2019t think Nan and Nellie would mind.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We spoil our sons<\/span><\/i>. Their words rang in my ears as I
\ntraversed grey mountain and rusty moor on the road to Di\u00f9ranais<\/b> (Durness). There was incredible warmth in that statement
\nand it helped to further allay the cultural alienation which has been the last
\n100 years of my own family\u2019s history.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Geodh’ an Sgadain agas Eilean Choraidh<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It had started to rain. I flicked the car
\nwipers up a notch and took it easy along the single track road, meeting barely
\na soul on the way. I have been in many places where the rain was no hindrance
\nto the beauty of the landscape, but there are few places in the world which
\nseem to claim the rain as their own. The MacKay Country is one of them. The
\nswirling mist round the tops of resolute peaks and stacks is as expressive of
\nthe Gaelic mindset as our music and song. It\u2019s all one rhythm. And it makes me
\nfeel completely at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
But you\u2019re not a
\nHighlander<\/span><\/i> (read: “Gael”) a girl
\nfrom Lewis who couldn\u2019t speak Gaelic once said to me. The memory of that
\nstatement has remained something to make me chuckle, albeit ironically.
\nDespite the fact that I didn’t rise to it at the time, I could have scrambled through all manner of circumstantial evidence as to why it was not true. At any table of born and bred Highlanders I could sit very comfortably and count myself among them as my people hail almost exclusively from Ireland and Highland Caithness. I grew up in Argyll which if not a Highland county would struggle to be categorised otherwise. We kept hens, fished in the loch and grew potatoes at the side of the house.\u00a0 However when it comes right down to it, it also has a lot to do with mindset, something that is learned from spending time around people who can’t think any other way and treating them and their wisdom like they matter. That’s when they open up, begin to share and you feel your soul growing by the minute just being in their presence. The problem is that in the Highland context, mindset and language are becoming almost irreparably severed from identity. Just as well I can chuckle about it, bheireamh e na de\u00f2ir ort!<\/b> (it would bring the tears on you!).<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I pulled into Durness and made for the Smoo Cave Hotel<\/a>, where the Morrisons would make me welcome as always. A few pints of
\nleann<\/b> (ale) were most definitely in
\norder while I put down my notes. I had a grand bar meal, began to sup and the lines flowed.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tr\u00e0igh na h-Uamhag, Di\u00f9ranais<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

During my early teens my grandmother realised
\nthat I was becoming increasingly interested in history and genealogy. She explained
\nthat we belonged to the MacLeods, that they were our \u201cclan\u201d. I know now of
\ncourse that this was a modern, romantic perception of things, but there were
\nsome interesting family traditions associated with it nonetheless.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Our MacLeods of Latheron were originally from
\nAssynt, gran used to say. The story was that we migrated out of Srath Nabhair<\/b> (Strathnaver), that the MacLeods came down to
\nCaithness from the Sutherland glens before Na Fuadaichean<\/b> (the Clearances) began and settled in H\u00e0craig <\/b>(Halkirk) before making for the coast. Not only that, but they were said to hail from Assynt originally. It\u2019s difficult to imagine why
\nthere wouldn\u2019t be at least some truth in this, although I haven\u2019t managed to
\nlook deeply enough into it just yet.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I suppose this had left a fascination with me.
\nWho were these MacLeods of Assynt? I quickly learned that their main stronghold
\nduring the 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> centuries was \u00c0rd Bhreac<\/b> (the speckled bluff,
\nArdvreck) on Loch Asaint<\/b> (Loch
\nAssynt). Delving into the history of the castle, one incedent sticks out above
\nall. This was where Montrose had allegedly been betrayed to the Covenanters by
\none Niall MacLe\u00f2id<\/b> (Neil MacLeod),
\nLaird of Assynt.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I woke up late the next day. The first few
\nhours of it had already passed and I hobbled down the hotel stairs for some
\nscrambled egg and toast. Far, far too many drams last night. Too many pints.
\nWhatever the heck else had been going. I had strapped on my guitar and sung my
\nheart out. Classics from the 60s and 70s and a few Gaelic songs too. I hadn\u2019t
\nbought a drink all night. The folk up there know how to look after a singer.
\nOne or two on the house for the troubador and a good few from about the room
\ntoo. Fella from Glasgow who thought he was a Patter-merchant. Heckling. Gave
\njust as good as I got. Head alright. Stomach needing filled. Not quite legal to
\ndrive yet. Toast, egg and pan-fried mushrooms choked down. Half a cigarette someone
\nhad rolled me still in my pocket from the previous night, flat and flaky, puffed
\nout the side door. Straightening out. Beag
\nair bheag<\/b> (little by little).<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I had taken forward a slight sense of shame in
\nmy MacLeod ancestry from this incedent between the Laird of Ardvreck and
\nMontrose. There is no doubt that he and Alasdair
\nmac Colla chiotaich<\/b> (Alasdair MacColla) were a formidable team and easy to
\nadmire despite the ego and brutality respectively. It is frankly criminal how
\nlittle MacColla is celebrated in comparison to the likes of Wallace. Because he
\ndoesn\u2019t fit in with the Lowland conception of what a Scottish hero should be,
\nhe is blithely ignored. Montrose fits in fine and is celebrated. In all
\nfairness, rightly so. To think that my ancestors had turned him over to the
\nenemy filled my teenage self with resentment. It\u2019s all about good and bad at
\nthat age, and complicated politics flies overhead without so much as a nod.
\nGrowing up with American cartoons as a constituent of your moral compass
\ncertainly leaves its legacy.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I eventually made it out to the car after
\ncopious amounts of coffee and as the air struck me, realised that my head was
\nclear. Since the zero tolerance policy kicked in, I have not been willing to
\ntake any chances. It was wet again and I hadn\u2019t much time. I wanted to make it
\ninto Assynt proper and assess the situation. I made off out of Durness, having
\nhad a cracking night\u2019s entertainment and hospitality and took the long road
\nround the north-west corner of Sutherland. The county had been good to me so
\nfar once again.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Loch Asainte<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There is something incredibly dramatic about
\nthe situation of Ardvreck Castle. You hit the road that runs along the shores of
\nLoch Assynt having emerged out of the MacKay Country and have to take a left back
\ntowards the hinterland of Sutherland to reach the castle. Today was one of
\nthose days when despite the lack of blue sky, the colours that remained through
\nthe rain and mist were just right for my mood and inclination. The water of the
\nloch was a solid slate colour with the slumbering mountains rising from behind its shores
\nand the shattered tower of MacLeod on a little outcrop on the northern side; no
\ndoubt the \u00e0rd bhreac<\/b> that gave the
\ncastle its name. I got out of my car in the parking area and passed a number of
\nGermanic-speaking tourists as I approached Ardvreck with whom I exchanged
\npleasantries in Dutch and Swedish.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Neil MacLeod the betrayer of Montrose. I had
\nnever looked under the surface of this tale, never affirmed nor disaffirmed its
\nveracity. Looking into it 20-odd years later and it seems that the real story of Montrose’s
\nbetrayal was well-known amongst the Gaels of Assynt. In 1650, Montrose was a fugitive
\nafter the disastrous Battle of Carbisdale and was starving. He had arrived in
\nAssynt broken and exhausted and had given himself up to some locals who proceeded to
\nbring him to Ardvreck.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There is not another settlement to be seen from
\nthe castle; it is today entirely isolated. As I wandered without a jacket,
\nletting the misty sm\u00f9graich<\/b> (light
\nrain) soak into my t-shirt and the chilly osnaich<\/b>
\n(breeze) envelop me, I imagined what it must have been like for the shattered,
\nstrung-out Montrose to arrive at this desolate outpost. That said, things would
\nhave been different in the past. As a Gael, I am in full knowledge of just how
\nmany smallholdings there would have been right along the shores of the loch.
\nJust west of the castle were the settlements at Acha’ M\u00f3r<\/b> (Big Field), which would have housed some dozens of
\nGaelic-speaking people before they were cleared to the coast between 1812 and
\n1821. This would not have been an \u201cisolated\u201d spot at all for a visiting Gael,
\nit would have been a community into which a man would arrive and be shown just the
\nsame hospitality I had found in Melness.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Caisteal \u00c0rd Bhric ri taobh an loch<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There were however two differing factors for
\nMontrose. The first was that his identity would have been cast into immediate question
\ndue to his -at best- broken Gaelic and most certainly his attire, however ragged
\nby that point. He was born in Edinburgh in 1612, in the reign of James VI and in
\nan age when Highlanders were looked upon as no more integral to Scotland
\nthan a migraine in the head of its sufferer. Montrose would have stuck out like
\na sore thumb as he dragged his failing carcass into Assynt. While he would have
\nbeen well-adjusted to Highland ways after his months serving alongside MacColla
\n\u2013the Gael par excellence<\/i>– and would
\nno doubt have picked up some conversational Gaelic, he would not have gone
\nunnoticed as at the very least a Gall<\/b>
\n(Lowlander) in the depths of the Highlands.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The second problem for the Marquis was that he
\nwas politically-speaking hot property. Upon arriving at the house of one of the
\nAssynt smallholders, it would have been folly for Montrose\u2019s host not to
\nconsult the laird over what to do with his guest. Any attempt to conceal his
\nidentity would have been hindered not only by the factors discussed above but
\nperhaps by a plea from Montrose himself in the hope of assistance from
\npotentially sympathetic Gaels. The only way his host\u2019s hands would not have been
\ntied would have been if Montrose had stumbled by chance on the home of a
\nstaunch Royalist.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00c0rd Bhreac ri linn Niall MhicLe\u00f2id<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Ardvreck Castle is more or less rent from top
\nto bottom. It appears as if some of its stone was utilised for the building of An Taigh Geal<\/b> (The White [Calda] House)
\nnearby.\u00a0 <\/span>When Montrose arrived, it would
\nhave been in its heyday, but still fairly small in comparison with some of the
\nmore famous edifices to the south. When the loch is high, the castle can
\noccasionaly become cut off from the mainland and as I walked round the building,
\nit was clear that the waves often lapped close to the foundations. It is said that
\nMontrose was brought across the moors to the building by his host, who had
\npromised to take him to the MacKay Country. We do not know if Montrose really
\nexpected hospitality from the MacLeods as the very fact that Neil had not come
\nout for him \u2013he had only just come of age- suggests that he expected at the
\nvery least a neutral reception.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The lady of the house \u2013a Munro who had married
\ninto the MacLeods- was a Calvinist and somewhat hostile to Royalists. Her
\nhusband Neil is said to have been some sixty miles away when the Marquis
\narrived. It was known that Montrose had suffered defeat at Carbisdale and one
\nof the enemy number was a Captain Munro who happened to be the brother of Lady
\nMacLeod and in regular communication with his sister. Whether Neil MacLeod was
\ndirectly involved in subsequent events is not altogether clear, but it is
\ncertainly known that he suffered the reputation of a traitor ever after.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What does appear to be very clear is that in general, Neil
\nMacLeod was in a sticky position at the time. He was being more or less
\ncoerced into partnership with the Earl of Sutherland and the encroaching
\nMacKenzies of Ross-shire had already begun usurping MacLeod lands in Lewis with
\nAssynt soon to follow. Whatever his role in events, what Neil did not have was a clean choice on his hands
\nand it is in truth pretty likely that he had no choice at all. The life that
\nfollowed the Montrose scandal was a very tough one for MacLeod and I now believe that the title of traitor<\/i> is
\nnothing if not a little harsh.<\/span>Click here to continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(The Gaelic Dialect of Assynt) SGEUL TALE I left Taobh Mhealnais (Melness) feeling decidedly better than when I arrived. If nothing else, I had been there, spent time with two wonderful people who spoke from out of the marrow of the place and even if heaven forbid a revival of the dialect never took place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20150905_194422.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1301,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/1301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}