History
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Port nan Gallan, The Oa, with the shadowy outline of Kintyre (mainland Scotland) in the far distance
Dál Riata[edit]
By the sixth century AD Islay, along with much of the nearby mainland and adjacent islands, lay within the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata with strong links to Ireland. The widely accepted opinion is that Dál Riata was established by Gaelic migrants from Ulster, displacing a native Brythonic culture (such as the Picts), but some scholars claim that the Gaels in this part of Scotland were indigenous to the area. Dál Riata was divided into a small number of regions, each controlled by a particular kin group; according to the Senchus fer n-Alban ("The History of the Men of Scotland"), it was the Cenél nÓengusa for Islay and Jura.
In 627, the son of a king of the Irish Uí Chóelbad, a branch of the Dál nAraidi kingdom of Ulster (not to be confused with Dál Riata), was killed on Islay at the unidentified location of Ard-Corann by a warrior in an army led by King Connad Cerr of the Corcu Réti (the collective term for the Cenél nGabráin and Cenél Comgaill, before they split), based at Dunadd. The Senchus also lists what is believed to be the oldest reference to a naval battle in the British Isles—a brief record of an engagement between rival Dál Riatan groups in 719.
There is evidence of another kin group on Islay – the Cenél Conchride, supposedly descended from a brother of the legendary founder of Dál Riata, king Fergus Mór, but the existence of the Cenél Conchride seems to have been brief and the 430 households of the island are later said to have been comprised from the families of just three great-grandsons of the eponymous founder of Cenél nÓengus: Lugaid, Connal and Galán.
Norse influence and the Kingdom of the Isles[edit]
Standing stone at Carragh Bhan, said to mark the grave of Godred Crovan, King of the Isles
The ninth-century arrival of Scandinavian settlers on the western seaboard of the mainland had a long-lasting effect, beginning with the destruction of Dál Riata. As is the case in the Northern Isles, the derivation of place names suggests a complete break from the past. Jennings and Kruse conclude that although there were settlements prior to the Norse arrival "there is no evidence from the onomasticon that the inhabitants of these settlements ever existed". Gaelic continued to exist as a spoken language in the southern Hebrides throughout the Norse period, but the place name evidence suggests it had a lowly status, possibly indicating an enslaved population.
Consolidating their gains, the Norse settlers established the Kingdom of the Isles, which became part of the crown of Norway following Norwegian unification. To Norway, the islands became known as Suðreyjar (Old Norse, traditionally anglicised as Sodor, or Sudreys), meaning southern isles. For the next four centuries and more this Kingdom was under the control of rulers of mostly Norse origin.
Godred Crovan was one of the most significant of the rulers of this sea kingdom. Though his origins are obscure, it is known that Godred was a Norse-Gael, with a connection to Islay. The Chronicles of Mann call Godred the son of Harald the Black of Ysland, (his place or origin variously interpreted as Islay, Ireland or Iceland) and state he "so tamed the Scots that no one who built a ship or boat dared use more than three iron bolts".
Godred also became King of Dublin at an unknown date, although in 1094 he was driven out of the city by Muircheartach Ua Briain, later known as High King of Ireland, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. He died on Islay "of pestilence", during the following year. A local tradition suggests that a standing stone at Carragh Bhan near Kintra marks Godred Crovan's grave. A genuine 11th-century Norse grave-slab was found at Dóid Mhàiri in 1838, although it was not associated with a burial. The slab is decorated with foliage in the style of Ringerike Viking art and an Irish-style cross, the former being unique in Scandinavian Scotland.
Following Godred's death, the local population resisted Norway's choice of replacement, causing Magnus, the Norwegian king, to launch a military campaign to assert his authority. In 1098, under pressure from Magnus, the king of Scotland quitclaimed to Magnus all sovereign authority over the isles.
Somerled[edit]
The remains of Claig Castle, a vital stronghold of Somerled
In the mid 12th century, a granddaughter of Godred Crovan's married the ambitious Somerled, a Norse-Gaelic Argyle nobleman. Godred Olafsson, grandson of Godred Crovan, was an increasingly unpopular King of the Isles at the time, spurring Somerled into action. The two fought the Battle of Epiphany in the seas off Islay in January 1156. The result was a bloody stalemate, and the island kingdom was temporarily divided, with Somerled taking control of the southern Hebrides. Two years later Somerled completely ousted Godred Olafsson and re-united the kingdom.
Somerled built the sea fortress of Claig Castle on an island between Islay and Jura, to establish control of the Sound of Islay. On account of the Corryvreckan whirlpool to the north of Jura, the Sound was the main safe sea route between the mainland and the rest of the Hebrides; Claig Castle essentially gave Somerled control of sea traffic. Following Somerled's 1164 death, the realm was divided between Godred's heirs, and Somerled's sons, whose descendants continued to describe themselves as King of the Sudreys until the 13th century. Somerled's grandson, Donald received Islay, along with Claig Castle, and the adjacent part of Jura as far north as Loch Tarbert.
Nominal Norwegian authority had been re-established after Somerled's death, but by the mid 13th century, increased tension between Norway and Scotland led to a series of battles, culminating in the Battle of Largs, shortly after which the Norwegian king died. In 1266, his more peaceable successor ceded his nominal authority over Suðreyjar to the Scottish king (Alexander III) by the Treaty of Perth, in return for a very large sum of money. Alexander generally acknowledged the semi-independent authority of Somerled's heirs; the former Suðreyjar had become a Scottish crown dependency, rather than part of Scotland.
Scottish rule[edit]
Lords of the Isles[edit]
The descent of Amie Macruari and John of Islay from Somerled
By this point, Somerled's descendants had formed into three families – the heirs of Donald (the MacDonalds, led by Aonghas Óg MacDonald), those of Donald's brother (the Macruari, led by Ruaidhri mac Ailein), and those of Donald's uncle (the MacDougalls, led by Alexander MacDougall). At the end of the 13th century, when king John Balliol was challenged for the throne by Robert the Bruce, the MacDougalls backed Balliol, while the Macruari and MacDonalds backed Robert. When Robert won, he declared the MacDougall lands forfeit, and distributed them between the MacDonalds and Macruari (the latter already owning much of Lorne, Uist, parts of Lochaber, and Garmoran).
The Macruari territories were eventually inherited by Amy of Garmoran., who married her MacDonald cousin John of Islay in the 1330s; having succeeded Aonghus Óg as head of the MacDonalds, he now controlled significant stretches of the western seaboard of Scotland from Morvern to Loch Hourn, and the whole of the Hebrides save for Skye (which Robert had given to Hugh of Ross instead). From 1336 onwards John began to style himself Dominus Insularum—"Lord of the Isles", a title that implied a connection to the earlier Kings of the Isles and by extension a degree of independence from the Scottish crown; this honorific was claimed by his heirs for several generations. The MacDonalds had thus achieved command of a strong semi-independent maritime realm, and considered themselves equals of the kings of Scotland, Norway, and England.
The ruins of Finlaggan castle, traditional capital of the Lordship of the Isles
Initially, their power base was on the shores of Loch Finlaggan in northeastern Islay, near the present-day village of Caol Ila. Successive chiefs of Clan Donald were proclaimed Lord of the Isles there, upon an ancient seven-foot-square coronation stone bearing footprint impressions in which the new ruler stood barefoot and was anointed by the Bishop of Argyll and seven priests. The Lord's advisory "Council of the Isles" met on Eilean na Comhairle (Council Island), in Loch Finlaggan on Islay, within a timber framed crannog that had originally been constructed in the first century BC.
The Islay Charter, a record of lands granted to an Islay resident in 1408, Brian Vicar MacKay, by Domhnall of Islay, Lord of the Isles, is one of the earliest records of Gaelic in public use, and is a significant historical document. In 1437, the Lordship was substantially expanded when Alexander, the Lord of the Isles, inherited the rule of Ross maternally; this included Skye. The expansion of MacDonald control caused the "heart of the Lordship" to move to the twin castles of Aros and Ardtornish, in the Sound of Mull.
The ruins of Dunnyvaig Castle, a MacDonald stronghold in the 16th century
In 1462, the last and most ambitious of the Lords, John MacDonald II, struck an alliance with Edward IV of England under terms of the Treaty of Ardtornish-Westminster with the goal of conquering Scotland. The onset of the Wars of the Roses prevented the treaty from being discovered by Scottish agents, and Edward from fulfilling his obligations as an ally. A decade later, in 1475, it had come to the attention of the Scottish court, but calls for forfeiture of the Lordship were calmed when John quitclaimed his mainland territories, and Skye. However, ambition wasn't given up so easily, and John's nephew launched a severe raid on Ross, but it ultimately failed. Within 2 years of the raid, in 1493, MacDonald was compelled to forfeit his estates and titles to James IV of Scotland; by this forfeiture, the lands became part of Scotland, rather than a crown dependency.
James ordered Finlaggan demolished, its buildings razed, and the coronation stone destroyed, to discourage any attempts at restoration of the Lordship. When Martin Martin visited Islay in the late 17th century he recorded a description of the coronations Finlaggan had once seen.. John was exiled from his former lands, and his former subjects now considered themselves to have no superior except the king. A charter was soon sent from the Scottish King confirming this state of affairs; it declares that Skye and the Outer Hebrides are to be considered independent from the rest of the former Lordship, leaving only Islay and Jura remaining in the comital unit.
16th and 17th centuries[edit]
Islay House
James V sent gunners to garrison forts in Islay in 1540. Initially dispossessed in the wake of royal opposition to the Lordship, Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg's holdings in Islay were restored in 1545. The MacLean family had been granted land in Jura in 1390, by the MacDonalds, and in 1493 had thus been seen as the natural replacement for them, leading to a branch of the MacLeans being granted Dunyvaig Castle by king James, and expanding into Islay. Naturally, the restoration of the MacDonalds created some hostility with the MacLeans; in 1549, after observing that Islay was fertile, fruitful, and full of natural pastures, with good hunting and plentiful salmon and seals, Dean Monro describes Dunyvaig, and Loch Gorm Castle "now usurped be M’Gillayne of Doward". The dispute continued for decades, and in 1578 the Macleans were expelled from Loch Gorm by force, and in 1598 their branch was finally defeated at the Battle of Traigh Ghruinneart.
However, when Sorley Boy MacDonnell (of the Islay MacDonalds) had a clash with the Irish branch of the Macleans, and the unpopularity of the MacDonalds in Edinburgh (where their use of Gaelic was regarded as barbaric), weakened their grip on their southern Hebridean possessions. In 1608, Coupled with MacDonald hostility to the Scottish reformation, this led the Scottish-English crown to mount an expedition to subdue them. In 1614 the crown handed Islay to Sir John Campbell of Cawdor, in return for an undertaking to pacify it; this the Campbells eventually achieved. Under Campbell influence, shrieval authority was established under the sheriff of Argyll. With inherited Campbell control of the sheriffdom, comital authority was relatively superfluous, and the provincial identity (medieval Latin: provincia) of Islay-Jura faded away.
The situation was soon complicated by the Civil War, when Archibald, the head of the most powerful branch of the Campbells, was the de facto head of Covenanter government, while other branches (and even Archibald's son) were committed Royalists. A Covenanter army under Sir David Leslie arrived on Islay in 1647, and besieged the royalist garrison at Dunnyvaig, laying waste to the island. It was not until 1677 that the Campbells felt sufficiently at ease to construct Islay House at Bridgend to be their principal, and unfortified, island residence.
Martin Martin recorded that Sir Hugh Campbell of Caddell was the king's steward of Islay in the late seventeenth century.
British era[edit]
18th and 19th centuries[edit]
A cottage on Islay from Thomas Pennant's A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides, published in 1774.
At the beginning of the 18th century much of the population of Argyll was to be found dispersed in small clachans of farming families and only two villages of any size, Killarow near Bridgend and Lagavulin, existed on Islay at the time. (Killarow had a church and tolbooth and houses for merchants and craft workers but was razed in the 1760s to "improve" the grounds of Islay House.) The agricultural economy was dependent on arable farming including staples such as barley and oats supplemented with stock-rearing. The carrying capacity of the island was recorded at over 6,600 cows and 2,200 horses in a 1722 rental listing.
In 1726 Islay was purchased by John Campbell of Mamore using compensation from Glasgow Town Council (£9000) for damages during the Malt tax riots. When he died in 1729 the island passed to his son, Daniel Campbell of Shawfield. Following the Jacobite insurrections of 1745–6, the Heritable Jurisdictions Act 1746 abolished comital authority, and the Campbell's control of the sheriffdom; thereafter they could now only assert their influence in their role as Landlords.
A defining aspect of 19th-century Argyll was the gradual improvement of transport infrastructure. Roads were built, the Crinan canal shortened the sea distance to Glasgow and the numerous traditional ferry crossings were augmented by new quays. Rubble piers were built at several locations on Islay and a new harbour was constructed at Port Askaig. Initially, a sense of optimism in the fishing and cattle trades prevailed and the population expanded, partly as a result of the 18th-century kelp boom and the introduction of the potato as a staple. The population of the island had been estimated at 5,344 in 1755 and grew to over 15,000 by 1841.
Islay remained with the Campbells of Shawfield until 1853 when it was sold to James Morrison of Berkshire, ancestor of the third Baron Margadale, who still owns a substantial portion of the island. The sundering of the relationship between the landowners and the island's residents proved consequential. When the estate owners realised they could make more money from sheep farming than from the indigenous small farmers, wholesale Clearances became commonplace. Four hundred people emigrated from Islay in 1863 alone, some for purely economic reasons, but many others having been forced off the land their predecessors had farmed for centuries. In 1891 the census recorded only 7,375 citizens, with many evictees making new homes in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. The population continued to decline for much of the 20th century and today is about 3,500.
In 1899, counties were formally created, on shrieval boundaries, by a Scottish Local Government Act; Islay therefore became part of the County of Argyll.
World wars[edit]
The American Monument on the Mull of Oa commemorates the sinking of two troop ships during World War I.
During World War I two troop ships foundered off Islay within a few months of each other in 1918. The SS Tuscania, a converted British liner carrying American Doughboys to France, was torpedoed by SM UB-77 on 5 February with the loss of over 160 lives and now lies in deep water 6.4 km (4 mi) west of the Mull of Oa. On 6 October HMS Otranto was involved in a collision with HMS Kashmir in heavy seas while similarly transporting American Doughboys from New York Harbor. Otranto lost steering and drifted towards the west coast of the Rinns. Answering her SOS the destroyer HMS Mounsey attempted to come alongside and managed to rescue over 350 men. Nonetheless, the Otranto was wrecked on the shore near Machir Bay with a total loss of 431 lives. A monument was erected on the coast of The Oa by the American Red Cross to commemorate the sinking of these two ships. A military cemetery was created at Kilchoman where the dead from both nations in the latter disaster were buried (all but one of the American bodies were later exhumed and returned home).
During World War II, the RAF built an airfield at Glenegedale which later became the civil airport for Islay. There was also an RAF Coastal Command flying boat base at Bowmore from 13 March 1941 using Loch Indaal. In 1944 an RCAF 422 Squadron Sunderland flying boat's crew were rescued after their aircraft landed off Bowmore but broke from her moorings in a gale and sank. There was an RAF Chain Home radar station at Saligo Bay and RAF Chain Home Low station at Kilchiaran.
