Source:Scottish Historical Review (Saint Maolrubha)

"Saint Maolrubha" The Scottish Historical Review

Saint Maolrubha¹

S. MAOLRUBHA or Sagart Ruadh (both names mean the Red Priest) stands out in history as one of the most interesting of the missionaries to the Picts of Alba (Scotland). He was himself a Pict on the mother's side. He laboured in Alba during the latter part of the seventh century and the beginning of the eighth century.

Both the name and the history of Maolrubha have been greatly confused by historical writers. Either among a non-Pictish branch of the Celts, or owing to popular fancy, the name Sagart Ruadh came to run concurrently with the Pictish name Maolrubha. For example, in the parish of Lairg² the Saint is popularly known as Sagart Ruadh, while the parish Church has always been known as S. Ma-rui’s,³ and the island on Loch Shin where the ancient cell stood is ‘Innis Ma-rui’.’

The two names misled some of the Roman Catholic writers, and even so great an authority as Dr. Reeves,⁴ into supposing that Maolrubha and Sagart Ruadh were different persons. The Roman Catholic writers also confused Maolrubha with S. Rufus of Capua.⁵ Dr. Reeves identified Sagart Ruadh with a certain

1. Maol in old Irish. Also mael. Welsh moil = bald. This is the spelling in the account of the mothers of Irish saints. Some Irish and modern Gaelic writers spell the name Maelruadh. Tighernac's spelling is Maelruba. There is evidence that in the Roman Catholic period the bh was not aspirated ; but sounded, sometimes as a v and sometimes as an f. Those who used the latter sound assimilated the latter half of the name as nearly as possible to Rufus and took rubha, rûfus, and ruadh as equivalents. Whether the bh in rubha is due to Latin influence on the Celtic, or represents a development from Indo-European dh parallel to f in provincial Latin, I leave to specialists.
2. Cf. History of the Parish of Lairg, by Rev. D. Macrae, p. 10.
3. Cf. Dr. Hew Scott, Fasti. Eccl. Scot.
4. Dr. Reeves contributed a paper to the Antiquarian Society on S. Maolrubha in 1862. He had previously dealt with the saint in the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal in 1849. See Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. iii. pp. 258-296.
5. Cf. Breviary of Aberdeen. S. Rufus' day is August 27.

Gilla-Patrick the Red, a reputed ancestor of certain Ross-shire lairds.¹ These Ross-shire lairds, however, claimed descent not only from Gilla-Patrick the Red, but from Maolrubha or Sagart Ruadh himself. This claim we can quite understand and explain when we remember that those who made it held Maolrubha's lands of Applecross, to which they had to profess some sort of title.²

Dr. Reeves,³ at the outset of his inquiries, prevented himself from recognising that ‘Sagart Ruadh’ is the later Gaelic-speaking people's variant of the Saint's name, by interpreting ‘Maolrubha’ as either ‘Servant of Patience’ or ‘Servant of the Promontory.’ ‘Maolrubha’ means, The Tonsured-one with the Red-hair, or with the Ruddy complexion.

There is more in this name ‘Maolrubha’ than is conveyed to an English ear. One of the secondary meanings of Maol refers to the bare forehead.⁴ The Picts applied the name with this sense to the bald brow of a mountain, and the name still survives in many districts.

When we recollect that the Celtic tonsure was from ear to ear, we can fully appreciate the appropriateness and historical

1. I understand that two of the families concerned did not thank Dr. Reeves for his laboured attempt to identify the Sagart Ruadh with Gilla-Patrick the Red. If Dr. Reeves had been correct the origin of these families would have been put about 500 years later than is reputed.
   A Sutherland family also claimed descent from Maolrubha. While the Rossshire lairds claim through a daughter, the Sutherland laird claimed through a son. Needless to add, the Sutherland laird also held land belonging to a church of Maolrubha.
2. Both the Rosses and the MacKenzies claim descent from Sagart Ruadh of Applecross. Each family has its own peculiar tradition. The tradition of MacKenzies, being the later, is the more impossible and fanciful of the two.
   Evidently when the Vikings made Applecross untenable as a religious centre the O'Beollans, the ancestors of the Rosses, usurped the rights and powers the Ab.
3. Cf. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. iii. 1862, and Irish Ecc. Journal, 1849. Dr. Reeves was unintentionally misled by information supplied by Dr. Skene. He was also further misled by some folk-gossip collected and supplied to him by the minister of Lochcarron.
4. The early Irish shaved the heads of all captives or slaves. The shaving was a token of servility. Hence Maol, apart from the tonsure, would be very appropriate to those who were followers of Him who took upon Himself the ‘form of a servant’ and, who rejoiced in being servants of the servants of God.
   Cf. Dr. Reeves' interpretation of Maol, and MacBain's hypothetical Mag(u)lo = servile, short-haired, bald.

value of the name ‘Maol-rubha.’ It is a name which in no way suggests the hollow tonsure of the Latin Church, and could not be accurately suggested by it.

Maolrubha's Family and Origin.

Maolrubha's ancestors on both sides can be traced to about the year 398 a.d. He was of the Irish Royal line, being descended on his father's side from Niall, Sovereign Paramount

Niall, King Paramount of Ireland.

Lugaidh

Eoghan

Crimthann

Eochaidh Binnigh

Ernan

Crimthann

Forgo

Cuboirenn

Brian

Ollarbach

Eochaidh

Garbh

Sedna

Elganach

Subtan

Maelrubha.

of Ireland. Consequently he shared the same blood as Aidan, King of the Scots of Dalriada, and S. Columba.

In all likelihood the popularity of Maolrubha in Argyll was due more to his lineage than to his message. He was attracted to Argyll by the descendants of the conquered Picts; but he appears to have won also the affections of the people of Dalriadic origin.

More influential on. Maolrubha than the Royal blood of his father's people was the saintly strain of his mother's family. His mother, Subtan,² was a niece of S. Comgall the Great of Benchar (Bangor).

S. Comgall had been trained with S. Columba under S. Mobhi in the famous religious house of Glasnevin. Ultimately, S. Comgall surpassed S. Mobhi in popular favour and founded

1. See Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. iii. 1862.
2. Cf. Feilere of Aengus. The genitive Suaibsech in the tract on the Mothers of Irish Saints is a variant, not a scribe's error.
   It is interesting to note that colloquially the Gaelic people vary the name Susan into Su'an and Susac to this day.

the College and Retreat of Benchar where S. Columbanus and many other great missionaries were trained.

It is worth while for the critical historian to note the relations between S. Columba (Columcille) and the great Pictish teacher S. Comgall, when we remember that one of S. Columba's objects in going to Alba was to help the Dalriads¹ to assert themselves against the Picts, who had very nearly driven them back to Ireland in 560 a.d.2 People usually forget that Colum cille had a diplomatic as well as a religious mission to Alba.

It is suggestive to find S. Comgall associated with S. Columba while he was a student, and also, journeying with him to Alba and to the Pictish court there, but finally, finding it necessary, to return permanently to Ireland; and equally suggestive that we find Maolrubha, his nephew, passing northward on the same coast as Iona and founding a great religious centre of his own, close to localities worked from Iona.

Maolrubha was born in the district to the north-west of Loch Neagh,³ in the territory of the Cinel Eoghain, his father's clan. Some remains of an early settlement still survive in the traditional locality.

Under the influence of his mother, whom he greatly loved, he went to the religious house of Benchar to be trained under one of the successors of the venerable S. Comgall.

In consequence of the slip of an annotator in the Kalendar of Marian Gorman,⁴ Maolrubha has been represented as Ab of Benchar.⁵ This was not the case ; but Maolrubha, on quitting Benchar, left as missionary-Ab in a muinntir of his own.

Maolrubha was twenty-nine years of age when he left Ireland for Scotland, at the head of the usual muinntir, or college of workers. For two years he moved about, mostly in Argyll; became acquainted with his new country; planted certain churches; and, at the end of this period, established his muinntir at Abercrossan⁶ in the western territory of the Picts.

1. Cf. S. Berchan's prophecy.
2. Gabhran of Dalriada, grandson of Fergus Mhor, was slain, and the Dalriads were driven into Kintyre by one of the Brudes; see Chronicles Picts and Scots 67, and Skene's Celtic Scotland, ii. 79.
3. In Derry.
4. The tradition and note misled several of the annalists.
5. Dr. Reeves points out that in the list of Abbots recited in the Antiphonary of Benchar Maolrubha's name does not exist.
6. Applecross in the west of Ross. Why should this name not be changed to its proper form ?

Like S. Donnan he passed the gates of Iona as the leader of an independent religious community. He made his headquarters in a district where no Dalriad would be welcome.

Churches Founded on the Journey to Abercrossan.

S. Maolrubha landed in Scotland on the peninsula of Kintyre. One tradition claims Islay as his first landing place. There was a Perthshire tradition that he passed eastwards from Argyll as far as Strath-Bran and Dunkeld. This tradition is no longer available in any reasonable form.

There is abundant evidence, however, to indicate that he spent the two years between his landing and the founding of Abercrossan in planting certain churches which lie between Kintyre and the mountains which flank Glen-Shiel on the southern border of Ross. These churches, so far as traceable, were at

Kilmarow (spelling 1697), in Killean and Kilchenzie.
Kilarrow in Islay (Kilmolrew, 1500).
Kilmalrew¹ in the peninsula of Craignish.
The old church site in Stra’lachlan,² Loch-Fyne.
‘Cill Mha’ru’,’ Eilean-an-t-sagairt, Muckairn.
‘Cill Ma’ru’,’ the ancient church of Arisaig.

The dates of the original churches of these places lie between 671 a.d. and 673 a.d.

Muckairn has always been specially associated with S. Maol rubha in the old Lorn traditions. It was here that he had his headquarters when, as is said, he crossed into Pert shire.

Maolrubha's cell was on Eilean-an-t-sagairt in the Lochanan Dubha near the modern farmhouse of ‘Kilvaru’.’ The old people had memories of a small churchyard on this farm.

At the ‘iii of Kilmolru,’ Campbell of Cawdor³ received the allegiance of the Clan ‘Dunlaves’⁴ sworn on the ‘Mess buik’ and the ‘relic callit Arwachyll.’⁵

1. Spelling in old document.
2. Rev. J. Campbell MacGregor says that no remains of this church survive.
3. Cf. Book of the Thanes of Cawdor, p. 129.
4. Livingstones, communicated by Rev. G. D. Macintosh.
5. Air a bhacul.

This relic¹ was not the bachul of S. Maolrubha, but the bachul of S. Moluag of Lismore. The Livingstones were its hereditary custodians. The clansman who held it was ‘Baron Bhacul,’ and it was transmitted from father to son with great care.

S. Maolrubha's Settlement in Applecross.

During his wanderings in the territories to the north of Argyll, S. Maolrubha became acquainted with Abercrossan. He selected the strath of the stream anciently called ‘Abhainn Crossan’ to be the permanent headquarters of his muinntir Here also he planted his chief Church. There is no record of the motives that dictated his choice, but we can clearly see the wisdom of it.

He would be in the midst of a purely Pictish people. T very name Abercrossan is a testimony to the length of time that this territory remained Pictish. The little bay is sheltered from the fury of the greater storms that sweep the Minch ; and the land is not opened up by any arm of the sea that would have invited the Frisian Vikings,² who had already visited the northern coasts. Unfriendly tribes in the interior and hostile Dalriads in the south, were shut out by the mountains that screen the strath of the Crossan from landsmen everywhere.

The Gaelic-speaking people call the present parish of Applecross ‘a’ Chomraich,’³ the Sanctuary. In the case of Abercrossan this name was not interpreted as an asylum for refugees seeking a fair trial merely, but as the territory divided off, to belong to S. Maolrubha, and to be under his jurisdiction.⁴ We see this especially in the claims made by Ross-shire laymen after the destruction of the Celtic Church to the lands known as

1. The late Duke of Argyll long envied the Bachul. He used to address Mr. Livingstone of Lismore, the holder of the relic, as ‘my lord.’ His Grace told a friend of the writer that Livingstone was the oldest peer in the realm, being a Baron of the kingdom of the Scots of Dalriada. The Bachul is now at Inveraray.
2. The people who martyred Maolrubha are called Danes in the Scottish documents.
3. From a root signifying defence or warding off.
4. The persistent and peculiar Gaelic idiom for ‘in Applecross’ testifies to this. It is always ‘air a’ Chomraich’ ; see Watson's Place Names of Ross p. 201.

‘a’ Chomraich Mhaolru’.’ They supported these claims by professing descent from the great Abbot.

When it is remembered that no Celtic churchman, not even Columcille, has left such a persistent and commanding memory of power and virtue as S. Maolrubha among the Highlanders, Abercrossan deserves to be venerated among the most sacred spots in Scotland. The Vikings made the work of the Celtic missionaries impossible; they checked Celtic civilisation and reduced northern and western Scotland to barbarism ; they changed place-names everywhere, and modified the speech of the Celts; but they were unable to obliterate, even where they were most supreme, the memory of the great and earnest man who ministered to half a kingdom from the banks of the Crossan. From his church in the little Strath he carried the Gospel into territories unvisited by other missionaries, or kept the faith alive where it was threatened by new race movements. From Cape Wrath to the Mull of Kintyre, and from the Hebrides to Banffshire the power of his presence and word must have been intensely felt, because they have been intensely remembered.

S. Maolrubha's Journey to the Islands.

Probably S. Maolrubha's journey through Skye and across to Lewis was his first missionary effort from Abercrossan. Skye lies over against Abercrossan, separated by a narrow sound. The Saint left very vivid memories in Skye, and the two ferries from the island to Abercrossan still bear his name.¹

The old settlement at Portree grew up around a church of S. Tarlogan. S. Maolrubha either reorganised this church or planted another. His name is as persistently associated with Portree as S. Tarlogan's.

In the Roman Catholic period S. Maolrubha was still venerated at Portree. The ‘Feill Mharui’,’² Maolrubha's festival, used to be regularly celebrated on the first Tuesday of September.

1. Churches had been planted in Skye by Columba, Donnan, and Donnan's disciple, Tarlogan.
2. The Feill degenerated into a market latterly. At Portree, as in many other places, the Roman clergy confounded S. Maolrubha with S. Rufus of Capua. The Feill was originally held on S. Rufus day (27th Aug.). The market which took the place of the festival was held for convenience on the first Tuesday of September. Cf. Aberdeen Prognostication, 1703.

Another place in Skye connected with S. Maolrubha's landings or leavings is Aiseag, three miles northward from Kyleakin. The older natives called it Aiseag Ma-Rui’, Maolrubha's Ferry.¹ Here Maolrubha planted a church. Like the mother-church it had a stretch of ‘sacred’ territory, only of less extent. The Church² and precincts afforded sanctuary to refugees.

Near the old church-site is Tobar Ma-Rui’, frequented of old by sick folk, who, to effect a cure, had to reach the well after sunrise and to leave before sunset, but not without depositing an offering.

In the vicinity is the rock, Creag-na-Leabhair—Rock of the Book. The ancient traditions say that here S. Maolrubha used to read the Gospel. On a tree near by he hung a bell, which, the people said, rang-in the Sabbath, and marked the hours of service without any promptings from man. In the Roman period this bell was removed to the church, Cill-Chriosd, in the same district, where it remained dumb ever after.

Another of the saint's churches was Cill-Ma-rui’,³ on the Strath-Aird side of Loch Slapin. Evidently the Vikings found this church flourishing when they settled in the district, because they called the settlement ‘Kirkabost.’⁴ Cross-marked stones have been found near this church. At Elgol, on the way to one of Prince Charlie's caves, there is an ancient churchyard where other cross-marked stones were found.

Higher up on the west coast of Skye, at the head of Loch Eynort, is a church ruin still called ‘Kilmalrui’.’ Near it is another church of the Roman period, evidently built to take the place of S. Maolrubha's Church at some time after it had become decayed. From this latter Church there is in the Scottish Antiquarian Museum a sculptured font, with a representation of the Crucifixion.⁵

At Sartle, in Trotternish, near Quiraing, is an ancient churchyard where the natives say a Church, founded by S. Maolrubha, stood. Beside it was a healing well, called Tober-an-Dòmhnaich, to which people used to resort for cures.

1. ‘Aiseag Maolrubha, Aite iomallach an domhain’—Maolrubha's Ferry, a place on the brink of the world. Compare a saying of similar import, also originally Gaelic, ‘Out of the world, into Kippen.’
2. The church has disappeared, but the churchyard is still used by the people of Strath.
3. Kilmaree.
4. Kirktown.
5. See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. viii. p. 230.

S. Columba and S. Donnan both laboured in Skye. Either their work was undone, or Christianity had deteriorated, becaus S. Maolrubha's Churches form a chain round the entire island.

The only place in Lewis which has retained the name of Maolrubha is the site of an ancient Church on the Harris side of Loch Seaforth.

S. Maolrubha's Eastward Journey.

S. Maolrubha's eastward journey took him along a line approximately represented by the Dingwall and Kyle of Lochalsh railway. He has left no traces about Inverness, so we may assume that he ferried over from the Black Isle to Moray, an pressed eastward as far as Keith. Here is his most easterl Church.

This is nearly as far as S. Donnan travelled on his eastward journey. As there was no geographical hindrance to either of these missionary enthusiasts carrying their work as far as the Aberdeenshire coast, we may accept various items of evidence which indicate that there was no religious need for them there. The ancient Celto-Pictish church of Buchan, with its well-established centres at Deer and Turriff, appears to have maintained an organised ministry to the eastward of the Deveron Valley.

The chain of S. Maolrubha's churches stretching eastward from the mother-church is represented by

Lochcarron,
Contin,
Urquhart, on the Cromarty Firth,
Forres,
Rafford,
Keith.

Lochcarron¹ village used to be called Clachan Ma-Rui’. The ancient graveyard is called Cladh a' Clachain. Not far from the manse is Suidhe Ma-Rui’.² Near the village, on the right bank of the Burn of the Waterfall,³ are some ruins that mark a place

1. At Courthill in this parish, beside Cnoc a’ mhòid, was S. Donnan's chapel and burial-ground.
2. As in the case of the Suidhe Donnain in Kildonan, S., preaching, reading the Gospel, delivering judgment, and resting have all been associated in tradition with the seats of S. Maolrubha.
3. The Tao’udal water.

called Teampull—very likely, originally, a Cell of S. Maolrubha, or of a deputy from his muinntir. To the westward somewhat, is Alltan an-t-Sagairt, Priest's rivulet.

The occurrence of the Cell ruins called Teampull, and the name Sagart at this spot, are interesting, because we will find the same features exactly reproduced far away in Sutherland, where S. Maolrubha was martyred.

Nothing remains of the church which S. Maolrubha founded at Contin.¹ This place used to be a much more important centre than it is now. Near Jamestown there is a consecrated spot called Praes Ma-Rui’—Maolrubha's grove, a burial-place of the Coul family. Féill Ma-Rui’ used to be celebrated at Contin before it was transferred to Dingwall.

In the parish of Urquhart, in the Black Isle, there is the site of a well-known Church planted by S. Maolrubha. It is interesting to note that the name Urquhart is compounded of air and Cardden,² meaning ‘before the wood,’ or simply ‘woodside.’ Let it also be noted that although Urquhart is geographically in Easter Ross, it was from 1476, and very likely for a considerable time previous, reckoned to be in Nairn for administrative purposes.³ These two facts, as we shall see, evidently helped to mislead the Aberdeen Breviarist⁴ when he thought that Urquhart was the place where S. Maolrubha was martyred.

1. Is Tarvie in Contin = ‘place of Bulls,’ one of the spots where the people in comparatively recent times sacrificed Bulls to ‘Mourie’ ?
   There is an old Ross-shire tradition which says that the Islesmen massacred a hundred men and women of Ross who sought sanctuary in S. Maolrubha's church, Contin.
   The Aberdeen Breviary says that the people massacred were holding the Saint's festival.
2. Dr. MacBain and also Mr. Watson.
3. In 1430 the King confirmed certain' lands in Urquhart to Donald, Thane of Cawdor.
   In 1476 William, Thane of Cawdor, had the former lands and others granted to him, and incorporated into ‘unum et integrum thanagium de Culdor,’ with all the liberties and privileges of a barony.
4. Dr. Reeves says, evidently with the Breviarist in his mind, that it is difficult to avoid believing that he founded on traditions ‘comparatively recent and debased.’
   It would seem to the writer that more than one hand compiled the part of the Aberdeen Breviary which relates to S. Maolrubha.
   Internal evidence indicates that one of the scribes had heard the old and accurate traditions about S. Maolrubha's death, but he misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misapplied them.

At Forres S. Maolrubha's Church is forgotten. His festival, however, was celebrated down to recent times under the name of ‘Samarive's’ fair on the 27th August.¹

There is an old tradition that the original church of Rafford was founded by S. Maolrubha.

The flourishing town of Keith has remembered S. Maolrubha as the founder of its first Church, but has forgotten the half of its own name. It used to be known as Keth of Ma-Rui’, just as we have seen that a place in Skye was Aiseag Ma-Rui’. In a charter of the time of Alexander II. the town is called ‘Keth Mal Ruf.’ The festival of the Saint became latterly the Keith market. It was held on the first Tuesday¹ of September under the name of ‘Samarive's Fair,’ as at Forres.

S. Maolrubha's Northern Journey.

This journey was his last. His churches are :

The chapel on Eilean Ma-rui’ in Loch Maree.
An untraceable church about the head of the Easter Carron.
The chapel on Innis Ma-rui’ in Loch Shin, Lairg.
The original church of Durness in the north of Sutherland.
The ancient chapel at Farr Parish Church.
The Teampull at Skail in Strathnaver.

Apparently S. Maolrubha first sought to work his way northward by the west coast. His day was kept by Lochbroom people; but no church remains have yet been brought to light in that parish associated with S. Maolrubha. In the parish of Gairloch, on the other hand, he not only had a Church, but was nearly as much venerated as in Abercrossan. Probably the settlements of heathen Vikings on the north-west coast barred S. Maolrubha's way northward.

On his northward journey S. Maolrubha revives the plan which he had adopted in Muckairn. He places two of his churches on islands in inland lakes. This suggests the presence of hostile forces, most likely Vikings who had begun to use the Straths in passing from the east to the west coast.

1. See the Aberdeen Prognostication, 1703. See Dr. Reeves for the date of the Forres festival.

Traces of S. Maolrubha's Gairloch Church on Isle Ma-rui’ are still apparent. Near it was a well noted for its virtues. There is also an ancient burial-ground.¹

The people of the three parishes of Loch Carron, Applecross, and Gairloch appear to have tried the patience of the ministers of the Reformed Church rather severely. They refused to forget Maolrubha in spite of the obliterating influences of the devastating Vikings and turbulent clans. Sometimes, alongside the simple tradition of his work as a religious teacher, we find him represented as a god,² sometimes as an undefined hero.

It is interesting and informative that the debasing of Maolrubha's name did not take place at the mother Church of Abercrossan, but at the Church on Isle ‘Mourie’ in Loch Maree.

In 1656 the Presbytery of Dingwall took proceedings against parishioners of Applecross and Loch Carron for sacrificing bulls 3 at the Loch of ‘Mourie’ (Maree). These sacrifices were for the ‘derilans’⁴ of Mourie. ‘Derilans’⁵ seems to mean the possessed or the afflicted ones.

Within living memory barbarous cruelties were practised on epileptics, and other ailing folk at Loch Maree, followed by certain unrevealed rites at the church of S. Maolrubha on Isle Ma-rui’.

A reliable account⁶ has been given of an afflicted girl who was made to drink of the waters of S. Maolrubha's well on Isle Ma-rui’ and then immersed in the loch and towed through the water. Instead of being cured the poor girl was made insane. It is regrettable that these barbarities should have been associated with one whose name in other parts of the Highlands is always linked with a benevolent and popular ministry.

When S. Maolrubha turned from the west coast track to the north, he struck north by east. Judging from the ecclesiastical remains, he would take the old track eastwards from

1. The name among the coast-living people for Loch Maree was Loch Ew. Possibly this preference was due to Scandinavian influences.
   Although Timothy Pont uses the name Ew in 1662, the Presbytery of Dingwall about the same time use the name Loch Mourie.
2. ‘The god Mourie.’
3. For bull sacrifices, cf. History of Burghead.
4. ‘Mourie his derilans.’ See Records of Presbytery of Dingwall, 1656.
5. Gaelic dearail = wretched, feeble ; deàrlan = brimful.
6. Contributed to the Inverness Courier.

Torridon which joins the Strath-Carron Road at the east of Loch ’Chroisg¹ (Rosque). Two places on this road bore the name Suidhe Ma-rui’. One was between Torridon and Kinlochewe, the other was close to Loch ’Chroisg. Near the second Suidhe was a cross-marked stone. The general name of the spot is Bad a’ Mhanaich—the Monk's Thicket.

From the road between Achnasheen and Dingwall S. Maolrubha probably turned northward at Garve, where there was one of the very old Christian settlements of Ross.²

The next traces of the Saint are said to be on the eastern Carron.³

Though we cannot tell where precisely S. Maolrubha crossed easter Strath Carron, we know that he must have passed the original church which S. Ninian founded about the mouth of the Carron Valley and out of which the later Abbey of Fearn developed.

Northward across the Oykell S. Maolrubha reached Loch Shin. There on Innis Ma-rui’ he planted the first Church of the parish of Lairg.⁴

The road along Loch Shin leads away north-westward to Durness, the parish in which is Cape Wrath. The original Church of this parish was founded by S. Maolrubha. It is said to have been at Bal-na-Chille (Kirktown).

On the island of Hoan, to the west of the mouth of Loch Erribol, in this district, there was an ancient Cell the name of which has been forgotten. The burial-ground is still traceable.

Along the north coast to the eastward at the bottom of Strath Naver, formerly known in English as ‘Stra’ Nawarn,’⁵

1. From the existence of the cross-marked stone here this loch was almost certainly originally Loch of the Cross rather than Loch of the Crasg or Crossing. We may be sure that it had its name before the drovers regarded it as a ‘crasg’ on their way to the Lowlands.
2. Cill-Fhin at the west end of Loch Garve.
3. Unless these are about Amad na h-Eglais, now Amat, I cannot discover them.
4. This is the first place where the writer had his attention drawn to the people speaking of the saint as Ma-rui’ or Sagart-ruadh indifferently, while the church has always been S. Ma-rui’'s, and the island on Loch Shin, Innis Ma-rui’.
5. Stra’ Nair’ or Stra' Naⁱrⁿ in modern native speech. Strath Nawarne, 1427. Straith Navern, v = w, 1499. Stranavern, 1515, and in Bishop Pococke's Tour (1760)—Loch Nevern, Strath Nevern, v = w. Lieutenant Campbell's Survey (1794)—Loch Navern.

stands the parish Church of Farr. The chapel that preceded the Church was founded by S. Maolrubha.

In the churchyard stands one of the most interesting and beautiful of the sculptured stones of Scotland.

An island that formerly existed between the Clachan burn and the churchyard has long been known as Eilean tigh an t-Sagairt—island of the house of the Priest.

About nine miles up Strath Naver (or Nawarn) from Farr stands the last cell that S. Maolrubha occupied. It is called Teampull, and this and the other names strikingly suggest S. Maolrubha's other Teampull in Loch Carron. The little eminence close by has been called at various times ‘Cnockan,’ ‘Cnocan an t-Sagairt,’ and ‘Cnocan an t-Sagairt-rhuaidh.’ There is a thread of water from a spring called ‘Alltan an t-Sagairt.’

There is an unique feature in this Teampull. Instead of being a simple bee-hive cell, it is a bee-hive cell against the inside wall of an older Pictish building. It was described to the writer by a skilled archaeologist who saw it over thirty years ago, when the cell was more entire, as ‘a bee-hive shaped structure inside a rounded building of Early Pictish type.’ Both the exterior building and the cell have been greatly tampered with by people looking for handy stones.¹

In the neighbourhood of the Teampull S. Maolrubha was slain by Viking invaders. The old traditions represented the actual spot as being ‘at a woodside.’ Whether speaking descriptively or using a proper name, this would be represented in Celtic speech by Uair-Chard² or Air-Garaidh³—in front of the wood or thicket.³ Twice, different Strath-Naver men have pointed out the upper end of the wood below Skaill as the traditional place where S. Maolrubha was slain.

The following place-names ought to be carefully noted in view of the old traditions (which appear to have been known to the Aberdeen Breviarist) that S. Maolrubha was slain before a wood, and his body dragged into the thickets.

1. A story related to the writer by a crofter in 1906 deserves to be recorded. Lord Balfour of Burleigh as Secretary for Scotland visited Skaill. He heard of a crofter who was using the Teampull as a quarry. He immediately called the nearest crofters together and under threat of instant proceedings cautioned them against lifting a single stone from the Temple.
2. Uair Chard would be the older, and Air-Garaidh the later Celtic form.
3. A cottage site near Teampull still perpetuates the name ‘Woodhead.’

The district below Teampull was known colloquially before the ‘Clearances’ as Air-Garaidh, the Wood-front. The whole wood was named from one part of it—Sron air-garaidh,¹ the Point on the Wood-front. A piece of land some distance below Skaill is still known as Ach air-garaidh, the field of the Woodfront.

S. Maolrubha was buried close by the side of the beautiful river Naver (or Naⁱrⁿ) within a few hundred yards of the Teampull. The grave is marked by a rough cross-marked stone.² The Cross is incised and of a simple early type. It stands in significant contrast to the beautiful Cross at the bottom of the Strath, vindicating to the eye of the archaeologist its right to mark S. Maolrubha's resting-place.

In olden times this sacred spot was surrounded by a low wall which has completely disappeared. The struggling crofter reaps his corn up to the edge of the small plot where the venerated Saint sleeps unheeding. The crofter is only the tenant of the surrounding land, but he protects the little spot reverently. The landlord is the richest Government in the world, represented by the Congested Districts Board for Scotland. Some day, perhaps, the British Treasury will enclose the grave of the brave martyr whose long mission was peace, and who was known to his countrymen as ‘Maolrubha naemh,’ Maolrubha the holy.

S. Maolrubha's Death as Related in Scottish Writings.

The account of S. Maolrubha's death in Scottish writings is mistaken and misleading. Yet, judging from internal evidences, one of the authors of the principal account, in the lessons of the Breviary of Aberdeen, appears to have had an accurate knowledge of the main part of the ancient oral traditions concerning the Saint's death and burial.

The simple unvarying ancient tradition which survived the Clearances was that Maolrubha or Sagart Ruaidh, when an old man, was attacked and slain by Scandinavians³ in ‘Na^yrⁿ’ or ‘Naⁱrⁿ,’ at a woodside, and buried near where he fell.

1. Chard and Garaidh have both the meaning of thickets. Cf. Reeves translating the Aberdeen Breviary on S. Maolrubha—‘dragged his body into the thickets.’
   Cf. Pont's Stronchergarry in Blaeu's Atlas.
2. The stone has been very much chipped and broken by natives taking pieces as relics or charms.
   The writer has seen several such pieces in various hands far away from Stra’ Nair’.
3. Or Danes.

The only Roman Catholic writer who correctly understood the locality indicated in that tradition was David Camerarius.¹ Unfortunately, by a slip, he notes the tradition not opposite Maolrubha or Sagart Ruadh, but opposite Dunanis (S. Donnan, whose principal church is in the next valley to where Maolrubha suffered. Donnan's parish extends to within a few miles of Maolrubha's grave). The entry of Camerarius is ‘July 19, 670.² Coelo ipsum dedit Strath Navernia³ Scotiae provincia sub Christi annum 670.’⁴ We can easily see that it is S. Maolrubha's entry and not S. Donnan's that Camerarius is making, because in parts of Ross and Sutherland S. Maolrubha was celebrated towards the end of July, as suited local convenience.⁵ The Bollandists, who were advised by a native of Ross, enter the Saint opposite the 27th of July, but notice him under the 27th August for his works.

That the writer already referred to in the Breviary of Aberdeen also knew the simple ancient tradition, although his geographical limitations led him astray, is evident, because he fixes on Urquhart⁶ (= Woodside) as the place of the Saint's death. Although Urquhart is in Easter Ross geographically, it was under the jurisdiction of Nairn of Moray, and had the appearance of being in harmony with the tradition. The Breviarist overlooked the fact that Urquhart of Ross did not fall into Nairn until the fourteenth or fifteenth century, whereas S. Maolrubha suffered in 722, before there was a county of Nairn.

The Breviary tells also that a wooden chapel was erected where S. Maolrubha was slain, and that his body was carried to Applecross for burial.

1. De Scotorum Fortitudine, Doctrina, et Pietate, 1631.
2. S. Donnan's day is 17th April (617).
3. V = w.
4. 670 is an error. It was not the year of Maolrubha's death, but the year quoted roughly for his birth, which took place in 671.
5. S. Finbarr's festival was changed twice—once by an Earl of Sutherland, again by the Scottish Parliament. It was put a whole month out.
6. The Breviarist was not aware that there is strong evidence that Urquhart was not a place-name in E. Ross when S. Maolrubha was slain.
   It seems to be an imported name. The accounts say that the parish and place took its name from one of the Urquharts who settled in E. Ross from Loch-Ness side.
   The Urquharts themselves claim to be descended from the keeper of Urquhart Castle on Loch-Ness. This keeper, Conachar by name, did not flourish until the end of the twelfth century. Cf. Urquhart and Glenmoriston, by William Mackay, of Inverness, p. 11.
   Wm. Urquhart, of Cromartie, is mentioned as sheriff of that county in the lists ordered by Edward I.

Memorial chapels were not the early Celtic practice. In S. Maolrubha's day the primitive dry-stone Teampull rather than a wooden erection was the fashion in the Highlands.

There has long been a fanciful story to explain the different ‘Seats’ of S. Maolrubha. It was said that his body was rested at these several places on the way to Applecross. The ‘Seats’ are so situated that they do not suit this story. Doubtless the Saint's body did rest upon them, but not his corpse.

Partly through following the Breviary, and partly through a misinterpretation of Cladh Ma-Rui’, the story that S. Maolrubha was buried at Applecross has been widely believed by those who were ignorant of his grave in Naⁱrⁿ of Sutherland.

We may see the misinterpretation taking form in the twentieth century. An inquirer goes to a native and asks, ‘What do you call this churchyard in Gaelic ?’ The native answers ‘Cladh¹> Ma-rui’.’ ‘What is “Cladh ?”’ asks the inquirer. ‘A digging, a grave, a burial-place,’ responds the native. ‘O yes, burial-place of Maolrubha,’ and the inquirer goes away satisfied. Next time we hear of this inquirer is in print, where he asserts that the natives say that S. Maolrubha is buried at Applecross, and that he has stood at the place where he is interred.

One wonders how often this misconstruction has been put upon the speech of the native during the centuries that have gone. It must have happened very frequently, because we find similar wrong ideas about the burial-places of SS. Donnan, Ronan, Moluoc, and others.

‘Cladh Ma Rui’’ is the burying-place by the church originally ‘blessed’ by S. Maolrubha, not the place where S. Maolrubha is interred.

The tradition that the pagan Vikings² who martyred S. Maolrubha ‘landed in the East of Ross’ affects in no way the account of the Saint's death in Strath-Naⁱrⁿ. We cannot interpret mediaeval ideas of the North by a modern map of Scotland. ‘Ross’ was a vague term used until comparatively

1. Cladh = churchyard. Early Irish, a trench.
2. Dr. Reeves takes serious objection to the story of a Danish inroad in East Ross so early as 722, because the first Danish invasion of England is dated 787.
   But the Scandinavians and later Danes were not the only Vikings who invaded and even settled in the north and east of Scotland.
   The archaeologist finds traces of Frisians who invaded the north of Scotland long before the end of the eighth century.
   S. Donnan was martyred by Vikings in 617.
   See also the expeditions to the north recorded by Nennius.

recent times to include every district north of Moray that was not in Caithness. Sutherland was the south land of the Catti, and ecclesiastically it was reckoned in Caithness. It was not the territory we now see on a modern map, but the strip of coast from Helmsdale to Dornoch, with a very narrow hinterland. The territories behind had often more communion with Ross proper than any other district. One old writer speaks of ‘Roosia’ as being on the south and the ‘Orchades’ to the east of ‘Cathania,’ as if Ross marched with Caithness. On this idea Stra’-Naⁱrⁿ would lie on the eastern side of Ross.

We have already noticed that the Aberdeen Breviary confounds S. Maolrubha with S. Rufus of Capua.

Adam King in his Kalendar, probably by a personal slip, or a scribe's error, enters S. Maolrubha as martyred ‘be ye daneis at Marne in Scot.’

Thomas Dempster in the Menelogium¹ enters—‘Julius xxvii.² Marnae Malrubi Eremitae et Martyris a Danis interfecti.’ In adopting Adam King's error, Dempster was probably misled by the popularity of S. Rufus, the historical double of S. Maolrubha in the Mearns district, to which he belonged.

Bishop Keith,³ who also belonged to the Mearns, but who, from his knowledge of Scotland generally could hardly help knowing the original tradition about S. Maolrubha, realised that Adam King had made a mistake, and corrected Marne to Nairn.

The Bollandists,⁴ who had the great advantage of a competent native correspondent and inquirer, were seemingly so unconvinced (as well they might be) that S. Maolrubha had suffered in Nairn of Moray, or in the outlying portion of Nairn, where Urquhart of Ross lies, that in despair they left the place of his martyrdom as it had been entered in Adam King's Kalendar, interpreting it as ‘Marnia or Mernis.’

The Irish Records and S. Maolrubha's Death.

Tighernac⁵ records the Saint's death as follows : ‘Maelruba in Apercrossan, anno lxxx etatis suae et tribus mensibus et xix

1. 1622.
2. The customary date was exactly a month later, but doubtless Dempster adopted the date on which S. Rufus was celebrated in Forfar and the Mearns.
3. Account of the First Planting of Christianity in Scotland (1755).
4. Acta Sanctorum, Aug. torn. vi. pp. 131, 132. . . . ‘narravit mihi P. Macra noster eis in oris missionarius et amicus meus.’
5. Tighernac and Annals of Ulster, Four Masters, 732.

diebus peractis in xi Kal. Maii tertie ferie die pausat.’ His death took place in the year 722 a.d.

Dr. Reeves was much troubled to find in the Irish writings an account so exact as to time, without mention of any of the details of the Saint's death familiar to the Scottish writers.

When we try to picture eighth century communication between Teampull in Stra’ Naⁱrⁿ and Abercrossan, and again between Abercrossan and Ireland, we can quite realise that the Annalists at first might only hear the bare fact of the Saint's death, and may have waited for details that never came ; or, if they came, were never recorded.

We can see that either might well have resulted when we recall that Failbe, son of Guaire, successor of S. Maolrubha, was drowned in the open sea in 737 with twenty-two of his sailors. With Failbe and his people a store of information would certainly be lost.

Then, at a later date, Abercrossan itself was plundered by Vikings, who perished with their booty ‘in a calm sea.’^l This booty would in all likelihood include the records.

Again, for some unexplained reason, the annals of the mother-church of Benchar were not available to several of the Irish writers ; because the scribe of Tamlacht, the annotator in the Kalendar of Gorman, the O'Clerys in the Kalendar of Donegal, and the Four Masters all describe the Saint as Ab of Benchar.

It is only fair to the Irish Annalists to note that S. Maolrubha died after fifty-one years of tireless, isolated work in the remotest part of distant Alba. He must have outlived many of his contemporaries, and some must have forgotten the exact story of his younger days. He appears never to have revisited Ireland ; although he kept up correspondence with the mother-church of Bangor.

There is a tradition in Ireland of the great love that he had for Subtan, his mother. Under the 21st April in the Felire of Aengus We have :

‘Inalpain conglaine,
Jarlcud cechsuba,
Luid uainn conamathair
Armbrathair Maelruba.’

In Alba in shining purity,²
Having relinquished all happiness,³
Went from us to⁴ his mother,
Our brother Maelruba.

1. Breviary of Aberdeen.
2. Pure, with the idea of brightness. Cf. γελειv and clean all from the same root.
3. Suba = joy
4. Or to be with.

S. Maolrubha in Modern Life.

It will seem like importing the prose of political experimenting into the region of Christian romance and heroism, to mention the Congested Districts Board of Scotland along with S. Maolrubha.

Yet there were many people of respectable twentieth century education who feared that in their efforts to re-people Strath Naver (Stra’ Naⁱrⁿ) the Congested Districts Board would be the indirect agent in evicting S. Maolrubha from his grave at Skaill (Teampull).

The fear arose in this way. It appears that S. Maolrubha, while he preached in the valley, prophesied that the time would come when the clansmen would be driven out of the valley as a punishment for their sins, and would not be allowed to return until his bones were washed to the sea, from their resting-place by the cross-marked stone.

The people have treasured this prophecy, and it has added great interest to the grave of the Saint. Every Highlander knows, of course, how the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

After the ‘Clearances’ the River Naver (Naⁱrⁿ) cut into its left bank above S. Maolrubha's grave and threatened to wash the sacred dust to the sea.

A sheep farmer who held the best of the land from which the people had been driven away, took alarm. He did not want the people to come back, to reoccupy the cleared ground where his sheep wandered; so he constructed a substantial outwork of stones and brushwood, and turned the current of the Naver to a more auspicious direction.

The upper part of the Strath has been re-peopled within recent years, but the river still leaves Sagart Ruadh's bones in peace.

The bard of the Mackay country voices the unsatisfied, who would like to see the Saint's bones in the ocean.

‘Then sweep, Naver ! sweep, for the dark clouds are hovering,

Towering in masses on corrie and steep,

Tear the Red Priest from his fern-shadowed covering

And bear him away to the sonorous deep.

Then softly shall stream the red beams of the sunset

Over Strath Naver when peopled again,

And the glory of peace for poor hearts shall be won yet,

And they who are sad shall yet sing love's refrain.

And the blue smoke shall curl yet from many a dwelling,

And love shall go wandering beneath the green trees,

And happiness float on the breezes soft swelling

From the low wooded hills to the storm-circled seas.’¹

One other curious reminiscence of S. Maolrubha has been preserved. Just as we have seen the Ross-shire lairds claiming connection with S. Maolrubha, through an alleged daughter, for the sake of the church lands of Abercrossan, so we find in Durness and Farr a family who claimed connection with S. Maolrubha through an alleged son. This family bore the name of Reid,² which was a translation, under Scandinavian influence, of their ancient name of Rubha or Ruadh.

The Reids appear to have owned property that at one time had been ecclesiastical; but they not only used their alleged descent from S. Maolrubha to infeft themselves in the property, but also to justify them in holding a spiritual ascendency over the people. They were laymen, but they claimed the right to some sort of ministry. They seem to have anticipated ‘the Men.’

So troublesome were they to the regular clergy in the Roman Catholic period that the Bishop of the diocese had to come to terms with them, and on one occasion one of them was ordained to a regular charge. The descendants of these Reids were scattered after the ‘Clearances,’ and some of them are to be found in the various colonies of the Empire, and some of them in the great cities at home.

The writer does not believe in the claims, either of the Rosses, the MacKenzies, the Reids, or the MacDonalds to be connected by blood with S. Maolrubha, but these claims are interesting to the historian and the archaeologist, and deserve to be recorded.

Archibald B. Scott.

1. These verses were taken from an interesting little work on Lairg, where they were quoted by the author, the Rev. D. Macrae, B.D. The verses are by ‘Bard Dutach Mhic Aoidh.’
2. My attention was drawn to the story of the Reids by the Rev. J. K. MacLean, Lairg, who was minister of Farr, a parish which was of old in Durness, and which now contains Strath Naver, where S. Maolrubha was slain, and where he lies buried.

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• April 1909 - Archibald B. Scott, B.D., published in The Scottish Historical Review his research concerning St Maelrubha. He was of the opinion that William Reeves's assumption that the Red Priest of Applecross was the same man as Patrick the Red was incorrect. Reeves's theory that the Earls of Ross were descended from the lay-abbots of Maelrubha's monastery of Applecross was dependent this assumption. Scott, therefore, casts doubt on this connection between the Earls of Ross and Applecross.
  <ref name="Scott Maolrubha pp. 260-280" />

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• Scott, Archibald B. (Apr 1909). "Saint Maolrubha". The Scottish Historical Review. Edinburgh University Press. 6 (23). ISSN 0036-9241. JSTOR 25518092.CS1 maint: date and year (link)