Ancestors of Kenneth Macleod born abt 1759 Parish of Durness

[Rw2]

Very impressive.  I understand that the Fencibles fought at the battle of Tara hill.  What's the most informative source you might recommend in which I could read about his service?

[djct59]

Ian Hamilton MacKay Scobie's history of the corps at the turn of thec 18th/19th centuries is now out of copyright and can be located online ay the Open Library- https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7181523M/An_old_highland_fencible_corps

It lists every man who died in the campaign, and everyone still enrolled when the Fencibles disbanded.

[Forfarian]

Ann Morison, alias nin Eanmacuilammachustian

Brilliant - daughter of John, granddaughter of William, great-granddaughter of Hugh Morison?

[Rw2]

Wow!!   So that's the source!  I've tried with 'translator' sites online and haven't had luck translating these aliases.  I didn't suspect they'd reveal a geneaology but I should've known.  I've JUST found that Ann's mother is a Katherine MacKay who married her John Morison of Islandhall in 1866 (!).  She was from Port Chamil, which was on the shore of Loch Erriboll but doesn't seem to have persisted to the current day.  She was my great x 6 grandmother and as far as I've gone up my grandmother's (my father's mother's) matrilineal tree, so far.
Katherine MacKay's alias was 'nin Dholicustian'.  ?  Any idea what that might signify?  I'd love to know.

Thank you very much sir for the link to that highly informative book re the Reay Fencibles and their time in Ireland!

 

[Forfarian]

Katherine MacKay's alias was 'nin Dholicustian'.  ?  Any idea what that might signify? 

Maybe daughter of Donald, granddaughter of Hugh Mackay?

It's not an alias, it's a line of descent.

Nin 'daughter of' is the feminine form of the much better known Mac 'son of'.

Dhol sounds like the genitive of Domhnall, the Gaelic version of Donald.

Then comes 'ic' which is an inflected form of 'Mac' - I won't go into the grammar.

And finally 'ustian' which sounds like Uisdean, the Gaelic version of Hugh.

[djct59]

Forfarian's translation is correct.

John Morison in Eilean Choarie (Islandhall) was MacUilleam Machustain - son of William, grandson of Hugh Morison.


There are no dwelling houses at Port Chamuill now; the land around Loch Suian is very waterlogged and simply not habitable. the land was obviously more habitable in Neolithic times, as there is a stone built souterrain there beneath a hut circle. It was excavated in 1927 by my great-grandfather Donald MacDonald and his son Alexander,  under the direction of Dr R. J. Buxton. It is still accessible to this day, although not without difficulty and is very wet inside. You can find photos of the inside online (my camera had a damaged lens so the underground  shots I took were not impressive)

[Rw2]

Thank you again!  Very, very edifying.  Can I ask you (as it seems that you might have roots of your own in the area, and might live nearby, or at least might have visited the area), have you ever visited Eilean Hoan, aka Islandhall, aka Burial Island?  Ann Morrison (my great x 5 grandmother) hailed from there as you know, and her father John, and possibly William and Hugh before them, and a great x 4 grandfather Andrew MacPherson (b. 1794) was from Islandhall as well, and his father Angus before him who married (as a "single young lad") Margaret Sutherland, alias nin Sainach (?), widow of Hector Macneilicrory (I believe she'd had 5 children by Hector by the time she married the much younger Angus).  (Andrew would marry Kenneth MacLeod [he of Saingobeg] and Ann (Morison) MacLeod's daughter; the two were young pioneers in 'St. John's Isle' which would come to be known as 'Prince Edward Island'.  [Unfortunately, Andrew's brother-in-law's son would marry Andrew's daughter years later, a first-cousin marriage.  I assume they were left alone together somewhere as young people and one thing led to another.)   
The island looks so windswept and flat and exposed, https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eilean+Hoan/@58.5671422,-4.6760862,1394m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48903eaea7e88899:0x3d505e197ce18db!8m2!3d58.567353!4d-4.6755546
 although while facing a lovely mountainous setting on the coast.  I wonder how many people would have lived there, how challenging their lives must have been.  It looks forbidding in the satellite image on google maps; no tree cover at all.  Do you have any information about it?  I assume there must have been an old cemetery on it, as one of it's names is 'burial island'.   

Thank you again!   

[djct59]

Rw2

As I understand it, "Islandhall" is Eilean Choraidh in the shelter of Loch Eriboll. It's also been unihabited for over a hundred years but was sheltered and fertile enough to provide homes and a living quarrying lime for about three families. It was finally abandoned in the 1930s. While very slightly smaller than Eilean Hoan, its location is more hospitable and there were townships by the lochside that could be accessed by boat within minutes. This is the island -

While close to the shore, the currents round it make Eilean Hoan difficult to access. Also the beach opposite is very wide and exposed; fisherman preferred the shelter of narrower inlets. It formerly had one farmstead on it that was abandoned almost two hundred years ago, but it was still used for sheep grazing until more recent times. In the 1950s one of my uncles found himself stuck there overnight after missing the tide. As far as I know it hasn't been used for sheep for many years now. As you say, it's very flat and exposed to the elements. Enough of the old farmstead survives to provide rudimentary protection from the elements, but visiting is not encouraged and is certainly not for an inexperienced sailor/explorer.

There is a belief that the Norse, who called Loch Eriboll Hoanfjord, used the island to bury their dead. There is a smal beach on the south side facing into the fjord, that would be suitable for berthing a small boat.

[Rw2]

Oh dear!  I'm much indebted to you now.  The strange thing is that I'm pretty sure I recall learning that Islandhall is in Loch Eriboll, but somehow I forgot that and conflated it with Eliean Hoan, and have done for @ a year or so.  I'm at a loss as to how.  Did I read somewhere since that Eilean Hoan was Islandhall.  But I'm a bit relieved tbh to know that those ancestors weren't living in SUCH hardscrabble conditions as it appears they would've been if Islandhall had been Eilean Hoan. 

From what you've written in your last reply, can I assume Burial island was Eilean Hoan, not Eilean Choraidh?  (You refer to the south side of the island facing into the fjord, but it does for both.)

Thank you again!