The Baillie, the Bard and the Birlinn

There was a poem in praise of the Gaelic language, love poems, nature poems and … a poem on the coming of venereal disease to Ardnamurchan.

Canna House, newly opened to the public – at least, two rooms and the hall are open for a few hours on a Saturday – will host its first one-day seminar on May 28. Under the title, The Bard and the Birlinn, it will look at the life and work of one of the island’s most interesting past residents, Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair, known in English as Alexander MacDonald. 

John Lorne Campbell was working on a major reappraisal of MacDonald’s life shortly before he died. McDonald was a renowned Gaelic poet and especially interested John because for a period he had been Baillie of Canna. He had written about him in his first book, Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, at more length in his history of Canna and in numerous articles, but was still intrigued by the gaps in his story and the apparent contradictions in his life.

MacDonald was the son of an Episcopalian minister and for a while worked for the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), a fiercely anti-Catholic and anti-Gaelic organisation. But he became Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Gaelic tutor and
fought as a Jacobite officer throughout the ’45 campaign. MacDonald’s book of 32 poems was the first volume of Gaelic poetry printed in Scotland and John was intrigued by its rich variety which, ‘like his own personality is an unusual mixture of contradictions and opposites’. There was a poem in praise of the Gaelic language, love poems, nature poems and one urging Highlanders to rise again against the Hanoverians, but also satires (John noted: ‘some obscene’) and a poem on the coming of venereal disease to Ardnamurchan.

John commented: ‘it is of great interest for the medical history of the Highlands, but has been suppressed as immoral since 1802’.

The seminar will be chaired by Professor William Gillies and the cost (£25/£20) includes a ‘Taste of Canna’ buffet lunch. Details from Stewart Connor at the Canna Farm Office 01687 462 963, or Canna House 01687 473.