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 Columcille 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, 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, Maolrubha has been represented as Ab of Benchar. 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 Abercrossan in the western territory of the Picts.

1 Cf. S. Berchan's prophecy.

6

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.

$ 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).
Kilmalrew in the peninsula of Craignish.

2

The old church site in Stra'lachlan, 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. Maolrubha in the old Lorn traditions. It was here that he had his headquarters when, as is said, he crossed into Perthshire.

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 ii of Kilmolru,' Campbell of Cawdor received the allegiance of the Clan Dunlaves 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. 8 Cf. Book of the Thanes of Cawdor, p. 129.

*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. The 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, 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.

3

2

The Gaelic-speaking people call the present parish of Applecross 'a' Chomraich,' 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. 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.

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 Féill Mharui',' 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 Féill degenerated into a market latterly. At Portree, as in many other places, the Roman clergy confounded S. Maolrubha with S. Rufus of Capua. The Féill 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 Church 2 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.

4

Another of the saint's churches was Cill-Ma-rui',' 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.' 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."

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.

5 See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. viii. p. 230.