The Sage History continues with an alternative view of how the Gunn Keith battle ends. Other early Gunn history... Thomas Sinclair ‘Clan Gunn History Supplement 32; 28 July 1903
REVIEW
This column is a fair enough overview of some early Gunn history. What is noticeable – especially given when it was written – is an awareness of the difference between ‘traditional history’ (or myth if you prefer) and what actually may have happened according to printed sources. This is very unusual, even today much Gunn ‘history’ is really ‘sanitised myth’.
KEY ISSUES / PEOPLE / PLACES / PHRASES
· Caithness/ Sutherland battle
· Family were obliged to retreat to the Island in Loch Brora where the Gunns came to their relief... (how?) the Caithness men had thought of swelling the loch by building a dam, but at dark the Earl of Sutherland’s family got off the island bu boat (novel..),,, the Gunns after an expedition in West Highland accidentally came to the place and defeated the Caithness men... the Gunns and Sutherlands then opened the dam... still known as Daman? Or dam-ford...
· A party of Gunns went to a relative at Braal in Halkirk in order to get holy water (of course they were...) Keiths heard of their arrival and attacked them as they were going to chapel (of course it would be going to chapel...) One Gunn makes brave stand and nasty Keiths...
· Gunns who succeeded the Norwegians of the name Gunnius were the posterity of the coroner... 15thcentury... Whether as magistrate or warrior, being chieftain of the Clan Gunn, the Keiths of Ackergill in Caithness were his inveterate enemies... retelling of the normal Keith Gunn battle (and, of course Gunns going to church... perhaps the only place to keep dry whilst they waited for the Keiths...)... Keith put to death by William M’Hamish, grandson of the coroner... he uses ‘The Conflict of the Clans’ for reference (my copy is called ‘The Feuds of the Clans’ by Macgregor (the part of the Gunns first published 1764...)) which has ‘In the end the Clan Gunn were all slain, with the most of the Keiths’... which is a far more likely result of a battle when you are outnumbered two to one than the normal somewhat unlikely story... Tradition represents the father James, history William his son of the perpetrator of the deed (killing the Keith)
· After the battle there survived four sons (presumably, given the above, not at the battle) James, Robert John and Henry. James fled to Sutherland after killing – or the death of - Keith of Ackergill and was considered chieftain in that county, the next in succession was William, the 1st M’Hamish (sources given)
· James brave and gallant leader... he then retells (and adds to) pages 82-84 of ‘The Feuds of the Clans’ and puts in material from Ross’s ‘Annals of the Earls of Sutherland’. Worth noting ‘tradition alleges and differs from the annals of this Caithness / Sutherland battle...
· Sutherland Bard and Piper created a war-song for the Gunns 1517 battle
This column is a fair enough overview of some early Gunn history. What is noticeable – especially given when it was written – is an awareness of the difference between ‘traditional history’ (or myth if you prefer) and what actually may have happened according to printed sources. This is very unusual, even today much Gunn ‘history’ is really ‘sanitised myth’.
KEY ISSUES / PEOPLE / PLACES / PHRASES
· Caithness/ Sutherland battle
· Family were obliged to retreat to the Island in Loch Brora where the Gunns came to their relief... (how?) the Caithness men had thought of swelling the loch by building a dam, but at dark the Earl of Sutherland’s family got off the island bu boat (novel..),,, the Gunns after an expedition in West Highland accidentally came to the place and defeated the Caithness men... the Gunns and Sutherlands then opened the dam... still known as Daman? Or dam-ford...
· A party of Gunns went to a relative at Braal in Halkirk in order to get holy water (of course they were...) Keiths heard of their arrival and attacked them as they were going to chapel (of course it would be going to chapel...) One Gunn makes brave stand and nasty Keiths...
· Gunns who succeeded the Norwegians of the name Gunnius were the posterity of the coroner... 15thcentury... Whether as magistrate or warrior, being chieftain of the Clan Gunn, the Keiths of Ackergill in Caithness were his inveterate enemies... retelling of the normal Keith Gunn battle (and, of course Gunns going to church... perhaps the only place to keep dry whilst they waited for the Keiths...)... Keith put to death by William M’Hamish, grandson of the coroner... he uses ‘The Conflict of the Clans’ for reference (my copy is called ‘The Feuds of the Clans’ by Macgregor (the part of the Gunns first published 1764...)) which has ‘In the end the Clan Gunn were all slain, with the most of the Keiths’... which is a far more likely result of a battle when you are outnumbered two to one than the normal somewhat unlikely story... Tradition represents the father James, history William his son of the perpetrator of the deed (killing the Keith)
· After the battle there survived four sons (presumably, given the above, not at the battle) James, Robert John and Henry. James fled to Sutherland after killing – or the death of - Keith of Ackergill and was considered chieftain in that county, the next in succession was William, the 1st M’Hamish (sources given)
· James brave and gallant leader... he then retells (and adds to) pages 82-84 of ‘The Feuds of the Clans’ and puts in material from Ross’s ‘Annals of the Earls of Sutherland’. Worth noting ‘tradition alleges and differs from the annals of this Caithness / Sutherland battle...
· Sutherland Bard and Piper created a war-song for the Gunns 1517 battle