Description of the Western Isles of Scotland

Description of the Western Isles of Scotland is the oldest known account of the Hebrides and the Islands of the Clyde, two chains of islands off the west coast of Scotland.Munro (1961) p. 1 The author was Donald Monro, a clergyman who used the title of "Dean of the Isles" and who lived through the Scottish Reformation. Monro wrote the original manuscript in 1549, although it was not published in any form until 1582 and was not widely available to the public in its original form until 1774. A more complete version, based on a late 17th-century manuscript written by Sir Robert Sibbald, was first published as late as 1961.Monro (1961) p. v Monro wrote in Scots and some of the descriptions are difficult for modern readers to render into English. Although Monro was criticised for publishing folklore and for omitting detail about the affairs of the churches in his diocese, Monro's Description is a valuable historical account and has reappeared in part or in whole in numerous publications, remaining one of the most widely quoted publications about the western islands of Scotland.

Monro also wrote a brief description of the five main branches of Clan Donald that existed in his day under the title "The Genealogies Of The Chief Clans Of The Iles", and this work was included when Description was first published as a stand-alone volume in 1805. The Sibbald manuscript also contains details about the "Council of the Isles" that operated from Eilean na Comhairle in Loch Finlaggan on the island of Islay. This is the most detailed extant account of the supreme judiciary body that had existed under the Lordship of the Isles until its demise in the late fifteenth century.Munro (1961) p. 95

Author

Donald Monro was born early in the 16th century, the eldest of the six sons of Alexander Monro of Kiltearn and Janet, daughter of Farquhar Maclean of Dochgarroch. His father was a grandson of George Munro, 10th Baron of Foulis.Alexander Ross (1884) "The Reverend Donald Munro, M.A., High Dean of the Isles". The Celtic Magazine. Volume 9, pp. 142–44 Donald became the vicar of Snizort and Raasay in 1526,MacLeod (2004) p. 25Munro (1961) p. 11 and was nominated to the Archdeaconry of the Isles probably in or shortly after 1549. These were troubled times in the Highlands and Islands, with Domhnall Dubh's attempts to resurrect the Lordship of the Isles only failing on his death in 1545. Partly as a result, the See of the Isles was one of the poorest in Scotland and although Monro lists fourteen islands as belonging to its Bishop, in practice rents were hard to collect.Munro (1961) pp. 12–13 In that year, he visited most of the islands on the west coast of Scotland and wrote his manuscript account of them, together with a brief genealogical account of various branches of Clan Donald. He referred to himself as "High Dean of the Isles"Munro (1961) p. 15 and his position was one of considerable influence although the advancing Reformation added further complication to the political landscape in which he was operating.

In 1560 the new Confession of Faith was adopted and ten dioceses were created anew, with the Isles shared between Ross and Argyll. Monro converted to Protestantism and was admitted to the new ministry for the parish of Kiltearn, to which he later added the adjacent Lemlair and Alness. He is said to have lived at Castle Craig, commuting across the Cromarty Firth to preach on Sundays.Munro (1961) pp. 17–20 At Lammas 1563 he became one of three special Commissioners under the Bishop of Caithness responsible for creating new kirks. The duties were arduous but he retained his position for 12 years, despite occasional criticism by the General Assembly. The last record of him is dated 1574 and it is assumed he had died by 1576 when new ministers were appointed for Kiltearn, Lemlair and Alness. He never married and no extant stone marks his burial at Kiltearn,Munro (1961) p. 25 his written work being his sole monument.Munro (1961) pp. 23–25

Previous descriptions

In or shortly before 83 AD, a traveller called Demetrius of Tarsus related to Plutarch the tale of an expedition to the west coast of Scotland. He stated that it was a gloomy journey amongst uninhabited islands and that he had visited one which was the retreat of holy men. He mentioned neither the druids nor the name of the island.Moffat (2005) pp. 239–40. In his Natural History Pliny the Elder states that there are 30 "Hebudes", and makes a separate reference to "Dumna", which Watson (1926) concludes is unequivocally the Outer Hebrides. Writing about 80 years later, in 140–150 AD, Ptolemy, drawing on the earlier naval expeditions of Agricola, also distinguished between the Ebudes, of which he writes there were only five (and thus possibly meaning the Inner Hebrides) and Dumna.Breeze, David J. "The ancient geography of Scotland" in Ballin Smith and Banks (2002) pp. 11–13Watson (1926) pp. 40–41Watson (1994) p. 38

The first written records of native life in the Hebrides begin in the 6th century AD with the founding of the kingdom of Dál Riata.Nieke, Margaret R. "Secular Society from the Iron Age to Dál Riata and the Kingdom of Scots" in Omand (2006) p. 60 Much of what is known of these times is the product of the monastic sites such as Iona, Lismore, Eigg and Tiree but north of Dál Riata, where the Inner and Outer Hebrides were nominally under Pictish control, the historical record is sparse.Hunter (2000) pp. 44, 49

The names of the individual islands reflect a complex linguistic history. The majority are Norse or Gaelic but the roots of some may have a pre-Celtic originGammeltoft, Peder "Scandinavian Naming-Systems in the Hebrides – A Way of Understanding how the Scandinavians were in Contact with Gaels and Picts?" in Ballin Smith et al (2007) p. 487Mac an Tàilleir (2003) various pages. The earliest comprehensive written list of Hebridean island names was undertaken in the 16th century by Monro himself, which in some cases also provides the earliest written form of the island name.

Publications Monro's work was first published in Latin in 1582. It forms eleven short chapters of George Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum Historia ("History of Scotland") with all of the islands listed, although with much omission of the detailed island descriptions. The genealogy section was included."Liber Primus" The Philological Museum. Retrieved 9 November 2012.Munro (1961) p. 27 In 1603 the portion in Scots relating to the islands was published in Certayne Matters concerning the Realme of Scotland edited by John Monipennie of Pitmilly in the parish of Kingsbarns, Fife.Identification by the publisher of Monipennie (1818) Following Buchanan, this version gives many of the island names in Latin. Thus Monro's "Heddir Iyle" (Heather Isle) is Monipennie's "Ericca". The section was republished in the 1612 Scots Chronicles, in which the acknowledgement of Monro's authorship was omitted.Munro (1961) pp. 27–28

The original version of Monro's text has been lost, but a copy made in 1642 by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne and Kinnaird, is still extant. Three sections relating to Islay and Lismore, Tiree and Coll, and Harris were omitted, possibly by careless copying.Munro (1961) p. 29 Some 40 years later Sir Robert Sibbald copied out a complete transcript that included sections missing in Balfour. Entitled Description of the Occidental i.e. Western Isles of Scotland by Mr Donald Monro who travelled through the most of them in Anno 1549 it was acquired by the Advocates Library in Edinburgh in 1733. Walter MacFarlane created a third manuscript in 1749, either from a debased original or directly from Balfour as it has the same defects.

Monro's work first came to a wider public when the incomplete version of Description was published in 1774 by William Auld of Edinburgh, along with some supplementary writing about the Hebrides.Munro (1961) pp. 30–31 The full title was Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, called Hybrides; by Mr Donald Monro High Dean of the Isles who travelled through the most of them in the year 1549. With his Genealogies of the Chief Clans of the Isles. Description and Genealogies were published together by Archibald Constable of Edinburgh in 1805, which was the first time Monro's work had been published as a stand-alone volume.Munro (1961) pp. 31–32 Miscellanea Scotica, published in Glasgow in 1818 included Description in volume 2 and the Genealogies in volume 4. In this version Description is given the date of 1594 in error.Munro (1961) p. 32 An edition of the 1818 text limited to 250 copies was published by Thomas D. Morison of Glasgow in 1884.

The shorter list was re-published (without the Genealogies) by Peter Hume Brown in his Scotland before 1700, from Contemporary Documents in 1893 and for the first time the text was subject to scrutiny by a professional historian.Munro (1961) p. 36 Walter MacFarlane's text was published by the Scottish History Society in 1908 as part of his Geographical Collections.Munro (1961) p. 37 Eneas Mackay of Stirling included Description and Genealogies in tandem with Martin Martin's 1703 Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in a 1934 publication. R. W. Munro's 1961 re-publication includes the full text of the Sibbald manuscript (MS), a comparison with the shorter Balfour/Auld versions, the recovered text of Monro's description of the Council of the Isles at Finlaggan, George Buchanan's preface to Description in Rerum Scoticarum Historia and scholarly accompanying material.

Some of the discrepancies between the additions are discussed by R. W. Munro. The 1612 version by Monipennie certainly loses both accuracy and detail. For example, his publication has the Flannan Isles "halfe a mile towards the west equinoctiall" from Lewis,Monipennie (1612) p. 191 whereas the original quoted by the Auld version has them "50 myle in the Occident seas from the coste"— in fact they are west of Lewis.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 330Monro (1744) No. 193 "Seven Haley Isles".

Critiques Buchanan was unstinting in his praise for Monro, describing him as "a pious and diligent man".Munro (1961) p. 42. Translation from the original Latin (recorded on p. 27) by James Aikman. The latter's reputation was secure until 1824 when the geologist John MacCulloch published a lengthy criticism after visiting the islands several times between 1811 and 1821. MacCulloch decried the lack of detail Monro offered on churches and church buildings, going so far as to suggest that he was ignorant of his own diocese, and accusing him of credulity when it came to the recording of folk customs and beliefs. In 1840 the Rev. Alexander Nicolson wrote in the New Statistical Account that "Nothing can show the credulity of the Dean more than his account of the cockles being formed in an embryo on the top of a hill, in a fresh water spring" on Barra. 120 years later R. W. Munro was more generous, noting that the Dean was generally careful to distinguish between the reporting of folk tales and claims as to their veracity and pointing out that MacCulloch's statement that "it is scarcely possible to recognise one in ten" of Munro's island names was unjustified. In 1893 Hume Brown made the first of several modern attempts to identify them and listed 121 out of the 209 on the Monro list he had access to.Munro (1961) pp. 33–36 Description remains one of the most widely quoted publications about the western islands of Scotland.

Identity of the islands

Monro originally wrote in Scots, and some of the descriptions are difficult to render into modern English without a working knowledge of this archaic style. Some islands have genuine descriptions, but from time to time there are lists such as: Vicreran: Narrest to the iyle of Belnachna layes the small iyle of Vickeran. Nagawna: Hard on the iyle Vyckeran layes ther a small iyland, namit in Erische Ellan Nagaruwa.Monro (1774) Nos. 29 and 35