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Clan Donald Magazine Online Edition
Skyelark's Travel Advisory - 300
Years of Local Experience by Ian Ross Macdonnell
With tongue firmly in cheek, Ian has selected some
extracts from Martin Martin's A Description of the Western
Highlands of Scotland, written circa 1695 for readers considering
joining the Chiefs' Hosted Tour of Skye and Uist in 2006.
1. "The air here is commonly moist and cold.
This disposes the inhabitants to take a larger dose of brandy or
other strong liquors than in the south of Scotland, by which they
fancy that they qualify the moisture of the air. This is the opinion
of all strangers, as well as of the natives, since the one as well
as the other drinks at least treble the quantity of brandy in Skye
and the adjacent isles that they do in the more southern climate."
(and, consequently?)
2. "A native of this isle requires treble the dose of physic
that will serve one living in the south of Scotland for a purge; yet
an insider is easier purged in the south than at home. Those of the
best rank are easier wrought on by purging medicines, than the
vulgar.
3. "The remedies used here to extract the poison of serpents
are various. The rump of a house-cock stripped of its feathers and
applied to the wound, doth powerfully extract poison, if timely
applied. The cock is observed after this to swell to a great bulk,
far above its former size, (I know - treble!) and being thrown out
into the fields, no ravenous bird of best will ever offer to taste
of it.�
Extra: For the Gathering & Tour in Antrim, Ireland in
2008.
Due to St Patrick�s lasting influence in this far Western Isle,
please amend the above, as below:
1. For brandy/strong liquor, substitute �aqua vitae�� or mead;
(double the quantity should suffice!)
2. The Purge - again, double will do - �to be
sure, to be sure�! BUT, for the vulgar, stick to treble!
3. Stripped rump of House-cock will (thank God)
not be required!
~~~
It is three hundred years since Martin Martin�s great
journey around the Western Isles, Orkneys and Shetlands. The first
and one of the greatest of all travellers in Scotland, Martin is
also unique in being the only native Gaelic speaker amongst them.
This gives his account a unique and authoritative resonance which
makes it, even today, a mine of information on the history, customs
traditions and life of the Hebrides.
Martin's father Donald Martin, son of Gille-Mh�rtainn, son of
Aonghas na Gaoithe, soldiered with the MacDonalds of Sleat under the
Duke of Montrose. He married Mairi (Mary), the daughter of Alasdair,
brother of the Chief 'Domhnall Gorm Og' of Sleat in Skye. Martin
Martin was, therefore, a cousin to the Clan (Donald) chiefs of his
day�. This Mary's grandmother was also called Mary (or Margaret) &
was a 'Macdonnell', being from Ireland of The (Antrim) Glens and she
was also married to a Skye McDonald chief, Archibald McDonald,
C1575. (not earlier Iain Mhoir, Tanister and heiress Marjory Bissett
of The Glens.)
The Skye Martins were a sept of the Sleat Donald Clan. Martin Martin
was a "Governor" [tutor] to Chief D�mhnall a� Chogaidh between 1681
and 1686. �He was borne in the Isle of Sky, was Gobernour to ye
Chieffs of ye Clans in ys isles and heth yt interest and favour with
them, they will doe for him what they will do for no other, yr
[their] Language is his Mother Language, and he is well acquainted
with yr Maners and customes and is the person here most capable to
Serve the Royall Society in the accounts of what relateth to ye
description of ys Isles.�
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