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Old Photographs Of Isle Of Colonsay Inner Hebrides Scotland

1,784 views · Published 8 December 2018 · 2:06 · Indexed 28 September 2026

Channel: tourscotland · 2018 · Travel & Events

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Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Colonsay, Scottish Gaelic: Colbhasa, an island in the Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull. During the 18th century the lairds of the island were Macneils, and included Archibald Macneil. Colonsay House was first built by the Mcneil family in 1722. Colonsay is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeil. Little is known of the early history of the Clan Macfie, however, it is certain that the clan served under the Lords of the Isles, descendants of Somerled, who ruled the Hebrides from the 14th century to the late 16th century. Following the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles in the late 15th century, the clan still attached itself to powerful Macdonalds. In the early 17th century the last chief of the clan was executed as Colonsay was lost to the control of a Macdonald. Without a chief of their own to control their home lands the clan was considered a leaderless " broken clan ". From this point on the Macfies followed the Macdonalds of Islay, though a branch of the clan was dispersed to lands controlled by Clan Cameron In the early 19th century Ewen Macphee became a notorious outlaw, " revered and feared by locals and despised by the authorities ". Today the modern Clan Macfie is alive with nine associated clan societies located around the world. Donald MacKinnon, was born in 1839 on Colonsay. He was a Celtic scholar, the first elected Professor of Celtic languages, literature, history and antiquities at Edinburgh University, a chair he occupied from 1882  to the year of his death in 1914.

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