MacDonnells Race: Rathlin Island, Islay and danger on the seas

Musician Phil Cunningham's BBC programme 'The narrow sea, the farthest shore' (2022) explores the cultural links between the west of Scotland and the north east of Ireland across the Narrow Channel. Islay is mentioned a number of times and in particular the skipper of a boat who regularly travels this journey today tells him about a turbulent stretch of water by Rathlin Island, near Ballycastle in County Antrim:

'This particular place is just known as MacDonnells Race* because when you get a fast flow of water it is known as a race. A family of four brothers went over to Islay to celebrate and get all the goods they needed and on the way back they hit a very bad piece of very fast water and the boat sunk on them and the four brothers were drowned so they christened if after them'

Of course that got me searching for details of this tragic event. Another version of the tale is given by Anne Winter in her account of sailing between Islay and Rathlin Island in 2019:  'We could see rough water to the north east of the headland: the MacDonnell race, named after the MacDonnell brothers, who were drowned returning to Rathlin when they were caught in a vicious tide race.  Their father watching from land raised his arm as if to move the boat’s tiller to steer them out of harm’s way.  Legend has it that his arm stayed in the same position for the rest of his life'. Winter mentions visting the Rathlin Island Boathouse museum so assume she picked up this story there.

The name goes back to at least the mid-19th century.  The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle published an article in February 1856 on 'Rathlin Sound and General Directions for the North Channel, Ireland' by R. Hoskyn, Admirality Surveyor for the NE Coast of Ireland. Hoskyn writes that 'Off Altacarry Head a rocky bank extends two thirds of a mile to the northward; where from thirty fathoms it deepens to ninety in a distance of two cables further. The tide, in its passage across it  forms a race known as McDonald Race'. 'Sailing Directions for Ireland' published by the United States. Hydrographic Office (1934) likewise warn of 'overfall extending 1350 yards from the shore, called Macdonald Race'

I haven't found any specific historical report of the four drowned brothers, perhaps it is a local legend based on an actual happening more than 170 years ago, though there are other strong historical connections between Rathlin and the MacDonald name. Rathlin Castle was the base for the MacDonnells (sometimes spelt MacDonalds) in their bid for control of parts of Antrim, ended by an infamous massacre in 1575 when English forces led by John Sorreys and Francis Drake stormed the island. The MacDonnells had branched off from the Islay based MacDonalds of Dunyvaig. That's another story but it shows how the history of Islay is bound up with happenings in Ireland just as much as in Scotland.

In any event, newspaper reports do list plenty of maritime tragedies with Rathlin and Islay connections.

For instance, in 1856 a Mr Mann of Portrush was on his was way by sea to Islay when he found an upturned boat. There was no sign of the crew, believed drowned after capsizing on their way from Ballycastle to Rathlin (Belfast Morning News, 10/6/ 1858). In 1917 a Rathlin Island fireman, M'Guilkin was one of three seamen who drowned when the Clyde Shipping Company's tug Flying Falcon was caught in a storm off Islay (Londonderry Sentinel, 11/10/1917).

The wreck of  the schooner Nations at Rathlin Island was reported in the Ballymoney Free Press (11/3/1880), with the boat going down on its way from Islay to Larne with a cargo of grain. The crew survived, though the Captain's brother had been drowned a year earlier after being washed overboard from the same boat. The captain pronounced the boat to be 'an unlucky vessel' and intriguingly seems to blame the prophesy of an Islay woman:  'The captain, who is a native, attributes the disaster to a woman in Islay. When his brother was about to start on his fatal voyage this woman said "broad as your shoulders are, you'll never return again". Since that she said the same to another native of the Island and he too was lost. The captain is not quite certain that she had the power to injure the vessel, but he strongly suspects she had'. That raises the whole folklore of 'the sight' in Islay, in particular the ability to predict somebody's death, another interesting topic in its own right.

* The spelling is variously given in different places as MacDonnell, McDonnell, McDonald, MacDonald or any of the above with an s a the end.

Update - On twitter (30/1/22) Douglas Cecil, a Rathlin Islander and ferry skipper, tells me that 'there is a small stone cairn built on the cliffs of the North Side of Rathlin which looks directly across to McDonnells Race where the father was said to have been keeping a lookout from'

Ceann Traigh Ghruinneart

On BBC Alba's Horo Gheallaidh last week I caught this song by Gaelic song quartert Cruinn. Even with my limited Gaelic I thought hey that's a song about Islay! And indeed it is.

'Ceann Traigh Ghruinneart' is a lament for Sir Lachlan MacLean of Duart, who along with hundreds of others was killed in the battle of Gruinart Strand on Islay in 1598. The battle was between Clan Donald and Clan McLean. According to legend, Lachlan was killed by an arrow fired by a dwarf known as Dubh Sith (Black Fairy).

Some of the lyrics of this old pibroch song were recorded by folklorist Calum Iain Maclean  from John MacCormick of Gruinart in Islay in 1953, a full version was later recorded in North Uist in 1976 (see Tobar an Dualchais).

Lyrics:
Ceann Traigh Ghruinneart

'S ann aig ceann Tràigh Ghruinneart a dh'fhàg mi'n curaidh
'S ann aig ceann Tràigh Ghruinneart a dh'fhàg mi
Fear a thairrneadh lann 's a bhuaileadh buillean
Aig ceann Tràigh Ghruinneart a dh'fhàg mi

Clò dubh, clò donn, clò mo chrich
Clò dubh, clò donn, clòthlan
Gura daor a reic mi 'n clòthlan dubh
Gura daor a reic mi 'n clòthlan

Translation:
It was at the head of Gruineart sands I left the hero
It was at the head of Gruineat sands I left
A man who could draw a sword and strike blows
At the head of Gruineart sands I left him

Black cloth, brown cloth, cloth that destroyed me
Black cloth, brown cloth, little batch of black cloth
Dearly did I sell that little batch of black cloth
Dearly did I sell the little batch of cloth

Solam: legend of a plague village

In many parts of Islay there are the ruins of villages and homesteads, reminders of a time when the population was higher and more evenly spread across the island.  These buildings were abandoned for various reasons - evictions/clearances, migration, changes in farming and the drift of people towards the larger coastal villages.

But there is one deserted village that has a more intriguing story attached to it. In the hills north of Ardbeg, on the Callumkill Estate, lie the remains of Solam (sometimes spelt Solum or Solaum in official records). It is widely believed that it was abandoned as a result of an outbreak of the plague. The story is summarised on a plaque placed nearby: ‘Solam – in the glen about 500m to the southwest of this building lie the remains of a small crofting community that was wiped out by the plague in the 18th century. Local tradition has it that shipwrecked sailors may have brought the disease; in return for the kindness shown to them by the people of this small community, one left behind a mother-of-pearl necklace, which is thought to have harboured the germs that killed them all. The sick villagers were isolated, and neighbours brought food daily, leaving it a safe distance from the village. When the food was no longer eaten, the village was burned. Outlines of one or two buildings can be traced in the grassy slopes on the north side of the glen. Directly opposite, below a steep rock face, lies the village water supply, St Michael’s Well’.

photo by Becky Williamson at Geograph

I’ll come back to the Well at this site another time, but what of the ‘Plague Village’? The only written source I am aware of is the booklet 'Tales of Islay: fact and folklore' by Peggy Earl (Argyll Reproductions, 1980): 'In the late 18th century, high up in the hills in the Kildalton area of islay, was to be found a small community called Solum. It was here a plague broke out. A foreign ship of some kind had gone on the rocks near Ardbeg, and the women showed a great deal of kindness to the shipwrecked sailors and helped them all they could. Wishing to show their appreciation the mariners gave the women small presents. One lady was given a necklace of Mother-of-Pearl which evidently harboured the germs that caused the plague. Solum was burned to kill the germs, but after some time was rebuilt and the plague broke out again, but this time was kept in check".

Interestingly Earl makes no mention of Solum being wiped out, nor does she state that she believes that the story is factually correct. Her aim in that booklet is to record some of the stories people in Islay have told about the past, and versions of that story do seem to have been in circulation independently of her booklet. Over at Old Islay, Duncan MacNeill mentions 'It was Willie Campbell the then head maltman in Lagavulin who told me this story in the late sixties'.

But is this story true? Let’s consider a few issues.

Are the ruins of Solam we see now the leftovers of a place abandoned in the 18th century and not lived in since?

No. Official records show that families were living at Solam throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and indeed it may have been finally abandoned only a hundred years ago or so. 

For instance the Parochial Registers of Baptisms for Argyll for 1723-1762 and 1789-1819 both include children from Solam:

Father’s name            Children’s names (year of baptism)

Gilbert McArthour        Alexander (1725)

Donald Johnston Isobell (1725)

John McNabb Archibald (1725),  Patrick (1729), Alexander (1731)

William Calbreath Katherine (1733)

Donald Campbell Mary (1734), Charles (1736), Ann (1738)

Dougald McIntagart Jannet (1792)

Alex MacIntagart Cathrine (1803)

John MacFadean Mary (1807), Dun (1808), Finlay (1811), Nancy (1813)

Coll MacDougall           John (1810)

It is possible that there might have been a bit of a gap in occupation at Solam in the mid-19th century - there doesn't seem to have been anybody recorded there in the 1841 and 1851 Census, but there were people there again by the 1860s.

The last family I have found living there was the McKinnons. Lachlan and Jessie McKinnon had both come to Islay from the Argyll mainland, from Kilmore and Morvern respectively. The death register records the sad loss of their children John (aged 3) and Lachlan junior (aged 7) in Solam in the Winter of 1874/75. Both children died from Scarlatina (Scarlet Fever), a reminder of the precariousness of life before penicillin and the National Health Service, but sadly not that unusual at that time. Over that Winter at least ten children died from the disease on Islay.

In any event the scarlet fever was not the plague, and did not lead to the abandonment of Solam. At the time of the 1881 Census, Lachlan and Jessie McKinnon were still there, with their surviving and new children Jessie (aged 12), Peter (8), Maggie (6) and Archibald (4). Twenty years later in the 1901 Census Lachlan, now 60 and listed as a Shepherd, was still in Solam now seemingly now with just his wife. Were they the last people to live in Solam?

photo by Becky Williamson at Geograph. 

Was there an outbreak of plague in Islay in the 18th century?

Almost certainly not. The last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Scotland was in the 1640s. There were epidemics of other diseases that caused many deaths in Scotland before and after that, including smallpox epidemics (1823-31) and a typhus fever epidemic (1836-40) [George C. Kohn, 2010, Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present], but as we have already seen there is no evidence of Solam being wiped out in that period. 

Does that mean the story is simply untrue?

It appears not to be true that the village was wiped out as late as the 18th century, nor is it true that the ruins have been empty since that time (though Peggy Earl doesn't say they were, some visitors to the site seem to think so and the plaque implies it).

But that doesn't mean there's nothing in the story.  Islay was no doubt devastated by plagues at various times in its history. It is possible that the legend as it has been passed down relates to something similar that happened in that area at an earlier time beyond the historical record. Perhaps there was an outbreak of the plague or some other infectious disease at Solam which led to the community isolating themselves, perhaps too it was believed to have been caused by contact with a visiting ship.

As the story was handed down, various elements might have been added to the story. Peggy Earl’s version includes elements that are reminiscent of fairy tales – the stranger on the shore, the gift that becomes a curse... There are also elements in versions of this story that recall similar stories from other places. For instance the story of the food being left on a stone outside the plague village is also told about Eyam in Derbyshire in the 17th century (though that story seems to be true - so who knows about Solam?). 

Or it could all just be a good story that was going around and somehow got attached to Solam at some point. There is something uncanny about being amongst remote lonely ruins which once teemed with life. It's almost easier to believe that some terrible catastrophe has occurred than to accept that the place has faded away through the slow grinding of economic and social change.

I guess we'll never really know...

See also: Armin Grewe has some photos of a walk to Solam

In sickness fare to Islay

In 1912 (June 22), the British Medical Journal published a letter entitled 'Medical Men In The Hebrides' by J. A. Goodchild reflecting on his time as a doctor in Iona at the turn of the 20th century. In it he mentions 'an old Gaelic saying' that refers to Islay as the first port of call for the Hebridean sick:

'The Mull doctors, one of whom has a fine Gothic tomb stone in the Reilic Oran at lona, were long looked on as the first in Scotland. These were the Beatons, who succeeded each other from time immemorial, and were occasionally summoned to Edinburgh to attend royalties. A daughter of one of them was amongst the four Maries of the old song. The old herb garden in which they grew their simples still keeps its name in the south-east of Mull, and it looks as if the only other medical attendant formerly available in the Hebrides was in Islay, if one may trust an old Gaelic saying : "In sickness fare to Islay, if Islay fails try Mull, if Mull says, 'I canna,' the de'il has ye''.

Not sure what period this saying dates from, as for the Beatons they practiced medicine in the Western Isles from the Middle Ages down to the 18th century.