The Lordship of the Isles

With Gaelic, Norse, Manx, and Scottish influences, the Lordship of the Isles was much like earlier Alba - a melting pot before the phrase existed.

Today, the United Kingdom is admired as a multicultural society with native-born ethnic groups making up about ten per cent of the total population.

The Lordship of the Isles was different. Even with the marriages between Gael and Norse, the native-born ethnic groups made up just under half of the entire population. These were mostly Gaelicised, like many second-generation immigrants in the United Kingdom have adopted the local speech and culture, but there were still communities who spoke in Norse languages, Irish dialects of Gaelic (at that time, the distinction between Irish and Highland Gaelic did not really exist - the two seem to have been mutually intelligible), Manx, and Scots.

But what did this mean for the rich and varied culture of the Isles? What games did they play? What food did they eat? What religions were there? What else made up the fantastically diverse culture of the Lordship of the Isles?

What Did They Eat?

Most of the Highlands existed on bread, fish, oats, potatoes, beef, and grain, produce which they had worked all year to cultivate and harvest. Although they had the benefit of machair, a fertile landscape unique to the Hebrides and western Ireland, the Lords of the Isles were not much different.

But the Lordship of the Isles also had the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean to search for or purchase food. Their proud maritime tradition and renowned sailors, such as Clan MacNeill of Barra, and the Sons of Magnus from the distant islands around Heisgeir, southwest of North Uist, allowed them to trade with many peoples, and also to obtain obscure foodstuffs.

Legends of Rocabarraidh, supposedly a distant island to the west of Barra, tell of sailors that hunted for basking sharks in the remote Atlantic, and the Lords of the Isles could enjoy whale meat and lobster, whilst the clansmen would delight in a feast on rare fish.

Spices probably found their way to the Lordship of the Isles with English and Scottish merchants, and venison and rabbit was probably the meat to be eaten with spices.

All in all, the best hotels wouldn't sell you a meal which even the humblest clansmen in the Lordship of the Isles could have feasted on for free.

What Did They Play?

It is likely that the main sports of the clansmen were hunting (which, although not done for sport, seems to have been something of a competition) and Gaelic football, which originated in Ireland in the 1300s. There is no way that the Lordship of the Isles, with land in Ireland, would have not known about the entertaining contact sport.

Racing the galleys also seems to have been a social event at times, especially in a state where there was probably one galley for five people, despite the fact that the Hebridean craft could accomodate about thirty people judging by the depictions of them in contemporary architecture.

Archery may also have been a common sport, especially amongst boys too young to hunt, but it was probably a more informal thing, the modern-day equivalent of which would be something like marbles.

It is unknown whether early forms of the Irish stick martial arts were practised.

Chess was played, probably imported from Norway, along with the pieces which were made out of walrus ivory.

Their Art

Art was a beautiful combination of Gaelic and Pictish. It was usually made up of intertwined floral patterns and depictions of battles, hunts, and, more commonly, the Hebridean galley.

Depictions of warriors with claymore and leine are common on Iona, and the masonry of castles often includes similar drawings, the origins of which may be pre-Christian (the Pictish obsession with the number seven, for example).

Norse carvings would likely have been seen in wood and on the figureheads of galleys, the Hebridean ships being descendants of the Viking longship. Not the interwoven foliage of Gaelic design, and not the bizarre geometry of Pictish artists, but depictions of pagan gods and elements.

What Did they Speak?

The chiefs and tacksmen would probably have spoken all the languages of the Lordship of the Isles, Scotland, and Rome.

This was Highland Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Manx, Norse, Scots, and Latin. It is also likely that they would have learned Welsh and English, as well.

Highland Gaelic and Irish Gaelic would have been mutually intelligible at this point, and Scots and English would hardly be different (they are still similar today - in English popular culture Scots is thought of as an accent rather than a language, where actually the majority of Scots are speaking their own language).

The clansmen would have spoken either Highland Gaelic and Norse, or Irish Gaelic and Norse, depending on how far north or south they were. Manx was not so much of a necessity for them - they didn't have alliances with the Kingdom of Mann to maintain. Welsh was a distant tongue of a distant land, much in the same way as Cornish or English.

 The Hebridean Galley

The birlinn was of great importance to Clan Donald and the Lordship of the Isles. With them, they could control the most remote islands, keep the most powerful land army from invading, and defend against the Norse.

But trade, transport, news, barren island fortresses, wealth, laws, and food would not have been accessible without the birlinn - the Hebridean galley. Everything from the informal party to the great assembly of chiefs and tacksmen for the marriage of a Lord of the Isles to a daughter of Robert the Bruce was powered by the galley, much as the United Kingdom in Queen Victoria's reign was powered by steam.

The galley was of immense cultural importance, and fleets were commissioned almost for the sake of it.

Wealth was counted in cattle, power was counted in galleys. Tributes to the galley in architecture abound, and canals were even carved through islands (in some places, islands were created, such as Loch Finlaggan) for easy access for galleys.

There could have been more galleys on the ocean then than there are cars in the Highlands now!