Coast And Beaches On Island Of Oronsay On History Visit To The Inner Hebrides Of Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of the coast and beaches on ancestry, genealogy, history visit to Island of Oronsay , Scottish Gaelic: Orasaigh, a small tidal island South of Colonsay, Inner Hebrides. Oronsay gets its first mention when Saint Columba landed in 63AD on his way from Ireland to Iona. He didn’t stay long as he thought he could still see Ireland from the summit of island’s steep hill Ben Oronsay. For the next thousand or more years the island continues to escape the written record, until in 1275, with the rest of the southern Hebrides, it became part of the Kingdom of Scotland. By the end of the following century it was part of the Lordship of the Isles ruled, under the Scottish crown, by John of Islay, chief of the Clan Donald. By the early 17th century land on Colonsay was held by both Clan Macfie and Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg. In 1623 Coll Ciotach also known as Colkitto, a Dunnyveg mercenary, was charged with the murder of Malcolm MacFie. MacFie had been hiding on Eilean nan Ròn, an islet south west of Oronsay, but he was spotted there by Colkitto's men, apprehended and then tied to a stone and summarily shot. However, after the death of their chief, the MacFies lost control of their lands and by 1630 Colkitto held the whole of Colonsay and Oronsay from the Campbell Earl of Argyll. However, not long after this Colkitto lost his own life in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and by 1701 the Campbells had sold both islands to a MacNeill of Knapdale, whose family held these lands until the early 20th century. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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