Lismore March 8^th. 1774

Sir,

I am ashamed I have been so long of Writing an Answer to your Letter which I received from M^r Campbell of Dunstaffnage a long Time ago; but Distress in my Family & other Avocations prevented my Complying with your Request till now, tho I must acknowledge a Man who did so much Honour to our Country merited better Treatment; but M^r. Stewart, your Fellow traveller, could so effectually satisfy you in all points as to leave me little so say. as he frequently question'd me about every Thing that was singular in this Place. —

I am unhappy it was my Misfortune to miss you when here, as a few Hours Conversation would be preferable to a Years Correspondence. —

Tradition bears that this Island was originally a Forrest; a Number of Dear Horns got in all the peat-mosses in the Country, besides the names of many places, make me incline to the same Opinion. Hart Horns of an uncommon large Size were found here some Years ago; If I do not forget, Doctor Walker of Moffat brought one of the Horns, or rather a part of one, to the Museum in Edinburgh. — The Scull of a Creature of the Cow Kind, of an overgrown Size, was likewise found in this Island, in a deep Moss, some Years ago, & is still to be seen at Lochnell-house in this Neighbourhood. — The Soil here is reckon'd good, it seems to be Loam, a Mixture of Earth & the Surface of the Limestone Rock on which the Island stands, mouldered down together. Our Climate here is bad, I mean wet, & tho we have a flattering appearance of Corn early in the Season, the great Falls of Rain in July & August destroy all, & frequently make our Crops turn out to small Acc^t. in the End. —

We destroy our Ground by too frequent Tillage so that our Returns are seldom equal to what might be expected. — Summer-fallowing is not practiced amongst us. We have great Quantities of Rock & Pit marl but we never burn Lime for Want of Firing which is very scarce with us; Peats are our only Firing & our Moss has such a Mixture of Earth in it that it must be trampt with the Feet till its brought to the Consistency of wrought Clay before it can be form'd into peats which is done with the Hands; in no other Shape will our peats stick together. — This method of making our peats is somewhat singular & attended with much Trouble — Corn & Bear are the chief Produce of this Country; great Quantities of the Latter are yearly made into Aqua Vitæ. — Our common Keal is suppos'd to turn here into Cabbage, I am apt to believe that this holds true, particularly after the 2^nd. or 3^rd. Years planting, but the first year it does not hold; I am told its the same in the Island of Tiree & in some parts of the Orkneys. Savoys or German Greens are not so lyable to this Metamorphosis, but even these incline to bow or close, & a few of them really do — We have three Water Lakes in the Island; two of them abound with fine Trouts, many of them of a good Size; the third which lies nearest my House has not Trouts in it, but has plenty of Eels in it; its call'd the Loch (Lake) of Balnagoun which signifies the Lake of Smith-town. Ducks of various Sorts frequent it in Winter & Spring. The Bottom of all our Lakes consists entirely of Marl —

This was a Bishop's Residence; the Walls of the present Church are those of the Choir of the old Cathedral roof'd anew — S^t. Maluag is the first Religionist we have any Acc^t. off that took Footing here; hence Hector Boetius affirms he was buried in the North in the same Church with S^t. Boniface, tho he acknowledges the Argathelians¹ claim a Right to the Honour of his burial place in Lismore. Mark that Boetius was a norland² — In Consequence of a Vow made by King Malcolm Ceanmore ^to S^t. Maluag when engaged in Battle with the Danes, there was a Church built in the North where the Bishops of Aberdeen had their Residence till David the 1^st.'s Time —

The Bishops were suppos'd of late years to have resided in the Castle of Achanduin upon the west Side of this Island fronting the small Garison of Duart on Mull. There is a remarkable Echo near this Castle; Dr Walker & I found that it repeated distinctly five different Syllabels —

When ravenous Beasts infested the Country the Inhabitants found it necessary to lay something upon their Graves to prevent the Corps from being dug up; they found large Logs of Timber answered this purpose & these were us'd in the ruder Ages before the Art of Hewing Stones was practiced or known; hence we find that there is no Word in our old Galaic Books for a Grave Stone (Galaic Leichd Lithidh) but Darag Lithidh, a Grave Tree or Log; Darag signifies a large, old Oak Tree —³ The better to secure their Graves from the Wild Beasts, the old Highlanders, for the most part, buried their Dead on Islands; a practice they would probably not have adopted because of the Inconvenience that attended it, particularly in tempestuous Weather, were it not to answer some particular purpose of this Kind. I wish this long Letter may in any Shape answer your Expectations.

I am
Sir
Your Very ob^t. Serv^t.

Donald M^cNicol

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Editorial notes

1. MacNicol uses Argathelian here to refer to the people of Argyll; the term was more commonly associated with a pro-Hanover Scottish political faction of the early-to-mid-eighteenth century that had been led by the second duke of Argyll.
2. A reference to Hector Boece's identity as a native of Aberdeen, and therefore potential bias against Argyll's claim to the saints mentioned.
3. MacNicol's account of log burials appears in Pennant, A tour in Scotland and voyage to the Hebrides 1772, part II (1774) pp.414-15.