Nicolson

Date: 1300

The Nicolson clan is amongst the oldest of all Skye’s clans. We know that by the year 1300, theirs was a major force in the Hebrides. The Gaelic equivalent is Macneacail or sometimes Macreacail. The English form Nicolson only came into it around the year 1650. Prior to that time, the name Nicolson was unheard of: Macnicol was the English for Macneacail. They are of Scandinavian descent. According to the written word, their presence in Trotternish dates back to the sixteenth century, though it is much more likely that they were here long before that. You only have to consider the testimony of Murdo Nicolson, the last tenant of Lon fhearna who told Lord Napier in 1883 that his fathers had been on the Lonfearn farm in the same house for the previous five hundred years. Also, don’t we know that according to our oral tradition, there are 28 Macneacail chiefs buried on St Columba’s Island on the Snizort river, at the site of the cathedral seat of the Bishops of the Isles. That would indicate that Macneacail chiefs were buried there as early as the twelfth century. And also, the first statistical account makes reference to the clan having been in Scorrybreac since the time of Scandinavian colonisation. Nicolsons have been in Scorrybreac as the principal tenants since at least the twelfth century. At the time of writing, the family of Donnie Munro live in the house known as Scorrybreac House. But the original house was at Torvaig, in Scorrybreac. That was where the Chief of the clan had his residence until about 1820. The house is commemorated in the song Thograinn thograinn bhi dol dhachaigh gu Sgoirebreac a chruidh chas fhinn which was composed after the visit by King James V to Skye in 1540. The ruins of the old Torvaig house are still to be seen.

They have been strong in the whole peninsula of Trotternish. Prior to the clearance of the lands of Scorrybreac to accommodate a farm, Holm was home to one Sorley Nicolson. He is known in the tradition as Somhairle na pioba, an gille grinn a bha Tolm = Sorley the piper, the good looking boy from Holm. Sorley did time in the Napoleonic war and he got frost bite on his fingers from playing the chanter in the Peninsular campaign. That Sorley was the great-great grandfather of Sorley Maclean the bàrd. The name Nicolson is still very common amongst local families, and particularly so in Brogaig, Glas pheighinn and Flodigearaidh. There is an old expression which tells us exactly how timeless a clan they are. “Cho fad’s a bha Neacallach a Rubha Hunish agus Ascallach a Rubh’ an Dunain” (literally ‘as long as there has been a Nicolson in Hunish Point and a Macaskill in Dunan Point’). The significance is ‘since time began’.