After a short conversation with Mr. Maclean, we went on to Grissipol, a
house and farm tenanted by Mr. Macsweyn, where I saw more of the ancient
life of a Highlander, than I had yet found. Mrs. Macsweyn could speak no
English, and had never seen any other places than the Islands of Sky,
Mull, and Col: but she was hospitable and good-humoured, and spread her
table with sufficient liberality. We found tea here, as in every other
place, but our spoons were of horn.
The house of Grissipol stands by a brook very clear and quick; which is,
I suppose, one of the most copious streams in the Island. This place was
the scene of an action, much celebrated in the traditional history of
Col, but which probably no two relaters will tell alike.
Some time, in the obscure ages, Macneil of Barra married the Lady
Maclean, who had the Isle of Col for her jointure. Whether Macneil
detained Col, when the widow was dead, or whether she lived so long as to
make her heirs impatient, is perhaps not now known. The younger son,
called John Gerves, or John the Giant, a man of great strength who was
then in Ireland, either for safety, or for education, dreamed of
recovering his inheritance; and getting some adventurers together, which,
in those unsettled times, was not hard to do, invaded Col. He was driven
away, but was not discouraged, and collecting new followers, in three
years came again with fifty men. In his way he stopped at Artorinish in
Morvern, where his uncle was prisoner to Macleod, and was then with his
enemies in a tent. Maclean took with him only one servant, whom he
ordered to stay at the outside; and where he should see the tent pressed
outwards, to strike with his dirk, it being the intention of Maclean, as
any man provoked him, to lay hands upon him, and push him back. He
entered the tent alone, with his Lochabar-axe in his hand, and struck
such terror into the whole assembly, that they dismissed his uncle.
When he landed at Col, he saw the sentinel, who kept watch towards the
sea, running off to Grissipol, to give Macneil, who was there with a
hundred and twenty men, an account of the invasion. He told Macgill, one
of his followers, that if he intercepted that dangerous intelligence, by
catching the courier, he would give him certain lands in Mull. Upon this
promise, Macgill pursued the messenger, and either killed, or stopped
him; and his posterity, till very lately, held the lands in Mull.
The alarm being thus prevented, he came unexpectedly upon Macneil. Chiefs
were in those days never wholly unprovided for an enemy. A fight ensued,
in which one of their followers is said to have given an extraordinary
proof of activity, by bounding backwards over the brook of Grissipol.
Macneil being killed, and many of his clan destroyed, Maclean took
possession of the Island, which the Macneils attempted to conquer by
another invasion, but were defeated and repulsed.
Maclean, in his turn, invaded the estate of the Macneils, took the castle
of Brecacig, and conquered the Isle of Barra, which he held for seven
years, and then restored it to the heirs.