Saddell Abbey On Visit To Argyll Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Saddell Abbey, a Cistercian monastery, on visit to Argyll. Somerled, or Somairle, Lord of Argyll, Kintyre and Lorne, and founder of Clan Donald, founded the Abbey but was killed in 1164 before the Abbey was completed. It was finished in 1207 by Ragnall, son of Somairle mac GilleBride and peopled by monks from Mellifont Abbey in Ireland. Somerled's descendants, the MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles, continued to be patrons of Saddell abbey. Monastic life seems to have come to an end when James IV of Scotland forfeited the Lordship of the Isles. It was proposed to the Pope that the bishopric of Argyll should be moved from Lismore to Saddell as the former was in ruins. Nothing ever came of the idea, but the Bishops of Argyll did sometimes take the title Commendator of Saddell. The surname MacDonald was first found in Kintyre, and much of the Eastern islands and coast-lands where members of this Clan, descended through Somerled, Lord of the Isles and had resided for many years. William Macdonald, a Scottish convict from Edinburgh, was transported aboard the ship Asia on July 29th, 1823, settling in Van Diemen's Land, Australia; John Macdonald, a Scottish convict who was convicted in Edinburgh, Scotland for 14 years, was transported aboard the Barossa on 8th December 1839, arriving in New South Wales, Australia; Janet Macdonald, aged 3, landed in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1801; Norman and Elizabeth Macdonald, and their two children settled in Georgia, America, in 1741; Alastair Macdonald landed in Baltimore, Maryland, America, in 1803; James Macdonald landed in North Carolina, America, in 1772 All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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