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The Drowning of Iain Garbh (1671) The young laird of Raasay, Iain Garbh (Mac Ghille Chaluim), a famous warrior, was drowned along with the sixteen members of his crew on the rocks of Staffin shore in 1671. He was on his way home in his birlinn boat having attended a christening in Lewis within his uncle’s family of the Seaforth Mackenzies. The North gale was so wild that the ship foundered. ‘The seanchaidh’ recorded the event by saying that, “the waves rose high as the Cuillin, and the boulders of Mol Stamhain were hurled far above the shore cliffs and deposited on dry land.” This story is an inspiration to Sorley Maclean in his poem, “Shores”. Addressing a woman he loves, he says “And if we were on Mol Stenscholl Staffin when the unhappy surging sea dragged the boulders and threw them over us, I would build the rampart wall against an alien eternity grinding (its teeth)”. There are many accounts of the story. In the Wardlaw Manuscript, we learn that the men had been drinking on departure from Lewis and that none of their bodies have been discovered, though one or two dead greyhounds came ashore along with parts of the birlinn. Legend also offers us another version. A cailleach with witch-like attributes sealed his fate with her own hand as she disturbed a basin of water at her hearth. Iain Garbh was the last chief of the MacLeods to occupy Brochel Castle in Raasay. His death, at the age of 21, prompted a lament by Màiri Nighean Alasdair Ruaidh, Mary MacLeod the Bardess of MacLeod of Dunvegan. It is called Marbhrann do Iain Garbh Mac ‘Ille Chaluim Ratharsaidh (Eulogy to Iain Garbh of the line of Malcolm Garbh). (Iain Garbh was the 7th Chief of the MacLeods of Raasay) |