Category: History of Ardnamurchan
The abandoned settlement of Glendrian lies in the centre of the western end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. The name derives from the Gaelic Gleann Droigheann meaning ‘blackthorn glen’, and its recorded history goes back to 1619, when an Allester McEan...
One of the joys of Ardnamurchan is the hiking that can be enjoyed across its hills. There are very few fences, and most of these are easily crossed. Further, there is a ‘right to roam’...
Every year for the last nine years, a group of archeologists from British universities, from Archaeology Scotland, and from the commercial sector – they call themselves the Ardnamurchan Transitions Team – spend a fortnight...
The hill called Creag an Airgid, Silver Hill, on the road between Kilchoan and Sanna, was the site of a battle in 1518 which saw the beginning of the end of the power...
St Comghan’s church is the church in which the MacIains would have worshipped throughout the three hundred years during which Ardnamurchan was their homeland. Today it is a ruin standing on a low hill...
The castle which is so closely associated with Clan MacIain was described in 2013 by an eminent archaeologist as “The most intact thirteenth century castle in Scotland”. Yet Mingary’s present importance to Scottish archaeology and...
The History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland, from AD 1493 to AD 1625, by Donald Gregory, was published in 1881. Its pages contain a detailed history of the last years of...
Such evidence as we have for the day-to-day life of the ordinary member of Clan MacIain comes from the archaeological remains that we find all over Ardnamurchan and from a few other sources, such...
In the years of the clearances, when people were sometimes forcibly removed from the clachans in which their families had lived for generations, many left Ardnamurchan for other parts of Scotland and for places...
1. GILLEBRIDE King of the Sudereys: Iain Sprangach MacDonald, founder of Clan MacIain, was descended on his father’s side from Gilbert (Gillebride or Gillebhride) Mac Gille Adomnan, known as ‘na h-Uamh’ from the fact...