Eilean Mhuire (meaning "Virgin Mary's island") is the most easterly of the Shiant Islands in the Outer Hebrides.
Once populated Eilean Mhuire is now used only for grazing sheep. There are various ruins on the island and the Ordnance Survey mark the remains of "St. Mary's Chapel" on the western side of the island, having been informed in 1851 that the island was a priest's refuge "in the time of Knox".[5] There is certainly a local tradition of the existence of such a building, although Nicolson (2002) believes this to be mistaken and speculates that Eilean Mhuire may have been a pre-Norse hermitage.[6] (There was however a chapel possibly devoted to the Virgin Mary on nearby Eilean an Taighe.)[7][8]
Writing in 1549, Donald Monro, Dean of the Isles stated of Eilean Mhuire that it was:
callit Senchastle by the Eriche, that is the alde castle ile in the Englishe, an strenthe, full of corne and grassinge, full of wyld fowls nests, and verey guid for fishing. It perteins to M’Cloyd of the Lewis.[9][Note 1]
Today, Seann Chaisteal (old castle) is the name of the flat-topped tidal islet at the south eastern extremity of Eilean Mhuire. This is a "large tidal rock on which there never was a building of any kind",[10] and the name may come from the rock's appearance.
Notes and references
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Notes
↑ Translation from Scots: "called Senchastle in Gaelic, meaning the "old castle isle" in English, a stronghold full of corn and pasture, full of wild fowl's nests, and very good for fishing. It is owned by Clan MacLeod of Lewis.
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Description of the Western Isles of Scotland is the oldest known account of the Hebrides and the Islands of the Clyde, two chains of islands off the west coast of Scotland. The author was Donald Monro, a clergyman who used the title of "Dean of the Isles" and who lived through the Scottish Reformation. Monro wrote the original manuscript in 1549, although it was not published in any form until 1582 and was not widely available to the public in its original form until 1774. A more complete version, based on a late 17th-century manuscript written by Sir Robert Sibbald, was first published as late as 1961. Monro wrote in Scots and some of the descriptions are difficult for modern readers to render into English. Although Monro was criticised for publishing folklore and for omitting detail about the affairs of the churches in his diocese, Monro's Description is a valuable historical account and has reappeared in part or in whole in numerous publications, remaining one of the most widely quoted publications about the western islands of Scotland.
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