Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/16

 JULY 16, 1906

THE COMBATANTS ON THE NORTH INCH OF PERTH

1833 the late W. F. Skene discovered a genealogical manuscript in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, and published it in the Collectanea De Rebus Albanicis. Whoever the writer of it may have been, it is an exceedingly valuable work, and has been of great service in promoting an interest in the genealogy and history of the Highland clans. It is not free from small errors, which may have arisen from misreadings or pen-slips. Neither is it free from mistakes in the names of some of the ancestors given in it. As a general rule, however, it is substantially correct to the year 1080. Back of that date, it is utterly untrustworthy. It contains almost nothing except the lively fancies of some interested persons who had been licking the blarney stone as a means of preparing themselves for relating and writing tales of family ostentation in a pleasing manner.

The Skene MS. begins the genealogy of the Macleans with Lachlan Lùbanach of Duart; the genealogy of the Campbells with Cailein Iongantach or Wonderful Colin; the genealogy of the Mackenzies with Murdoch Dubh; and the genealogy of the Mackinnons with Neil, son of Gillebride. Lachlan Lùbanach of Duart was born about 1330 and died VOL. III.