During our holiday to Mull we saw an amazing variety of wildlife, including this stag that was just stood beside the wee train we were riding to Torosay Castle.

We were also very lucky to see a sea otter off the pier at Tobermorary – which is an animal I’ve always wanted to see. The otter was being fed by the lady running the fish and chip van on the pier.

Otter – off the pier at Tobermoray

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The cairn and cross memorial to the Beaton doctors

The Beatons of Mull, the famous ‘Ollamnh Muileach’, were a family of doctors, whose origins can be traced back to Béthune in France, and are said to have been very talented with a rather unique medical ability.

They family were hereditary physicians first to the Lords of the Isles, and then to the MacLeans of Duart, but they also performed an informal medical service to the people throughout the whole area.

It is claimed that the very first Beaton doctor, a young man who assisted a highly skilled Irish doctor, gained his ability as a medical practitioner by accident. Whilst helping create a magical potion, which included brewing a white snake and a hazel stick brought from Mull, a drop fell onto his hand and immediately this young Beaton transformed into a talented doctor.

It is also said that this Beaton managed to save the life of a chief of Lochbuie in a rather unique way who was suffering from a particularly serious throat abcess. He put together a potion in the presence of the chief which had a very unpleasant potent taste to it, and asked some people who were also present to taste it. The facial expressions of each one who tasted the mixture caused the chief to go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter which strained his throat enough for the abcess to be broken up, and save his life.

It is said that only once was this doctor unable to diagnose a medical problem. Unfortunately for him it was his daughter who was ill, and despite Beaton’s ability he could not prevent her death. A post-mortem was carried out, and the girl’s death was put down to the live frog found in her stomach. The frog was kept alive and fed a number of different foods which were non-harmful to humans to see what effects they would have on it, in an attempt to find a treatment for any future cases. The frog eventually died when one day it was fed some nettle soup; a simple cure which left the doctor distraught because he did not think to try it when treating his daughter.

However, it is said that he managed to save another young girls life with this treatment after she swallowed a tadpole which went on to grow into an adult frog. Legend has it that he was able to diagnose the condition simply by the tone of her singing voice.

From Campbell‘s West Highland Tales it tells of three brothers, Gilleadh, Fergus, and John. Gilleadh was an expert herbalist, Fergus specialised on Islay, and John, whose grave is on Iona, was said to be the most talented doctor, and was Mull’s chief practitioner. People were aware of John’s ability all around Scotland, and news of it even reached the king in Edinburgh who demanded to meet with him. The king had invited all of the country’s best doctors to the capital where he would test them and see which one was superior to the rest.

In order to assess them the king did one simple test: he feigned an illness and challenged the doctors present to identify what was wrong with him, and then prescribe an appropriate remedy. All the doctors took the task with extreme seriousness except from John Beaton who could see through the king’s act and correctly called his bluff. The king, so impressed with Beaton’s intuitiveness immediately proclaimed him the best doctor in the whole of Scotland. Jealous, John’s rivals slipped some poison into his food whilst he was heading back to Mull. However, these rivals completely respected John’s talent as a doctor, and so to make sure that the poison took its full effect, they removed anything from his possession that they thought could be used to create some sort of antidote. The poisoning was successful and John was unable to doing anything about it.

Not far from the Free Church at Pennyghael on the Isle of Mull is a monument in the form of a cairn with a stone cross mounted on top to commemorate the famous Beaton doctors of Mull. Inscribed onto the side is ‘GMB 1582 DMB’. Apparently these are the initals of the most prominent Beaton doctors.

Adapted from Peter Macnab’s “Traditional Tales of Mull”.

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Luckily for Katherine, before the water covered the rock some passing fishermen saw her and she was returned to land where she made her way to her family home. Meanwhile Lachlan, thinking his wife dead, had sorrowfully reported the “accident” to the Earl, and although lacking a body, he held a mock funeral, where he showed every sign of sorrow. He was shortly found out, and the Campbells soon took their revenge. In 1523 Lachlan was “dirked in bed” while on a visit to Edinburgh by Katherine’s brother, Sir John Campbell of Cawdor. The rock on which Lady Katherine was marooned can be seen at low tide from Duart and is known as The Lady’s Rock.

These are perhaps the graves of the one “bad” Duart chief and his wife.

Lady Rock off Mull, originally uploaded by Amanda@ScotClans.

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At the foot of the 1,000ft cliffs of Gribun stands Clach na Leannan, the Stone of the Courting Couple. The stone is just 50 yards inland from a road where it passes the first farm coming from Salen direction, with a windbliwn elder tree at the gable. This stretch of road on the south side of Lich na Keal can be extremey terrifying, with the overhanging cliffs on one side and a drop into the sea below. There are many occurancs of rock avalanches after heavy rain or a passing sheep dislodging a stone.

In about the year 1700, in the autumn, a young man named John, a local shepherd was betrothed to Rona, daughter of a local blacksmith. The couple had been fortunate in obtaining a small but cosy cot- house that stood on a piece of flat land at the foot of the cliffs of Gribun. Their new home was situated opposite where the wedding was taking place.

The wedding celebrations went on until dawn in the barn of an old farmhouse. A storm had been threatening all day and broke in the night, a great wind came roaring in from the sea accompanied by torrents if rain. As time went on, the neawly-weds slipped out unoriced and hurried over to their little home. With the noise of the storm, pipes and celebrations, no-one heard the dreadful sound in the night when a great outcrop split, and a huge section rolled down, coming to rest on and completely flattening the cot-house with the young couple inside.

There they lie to this day with just a few flowers springing up against the rock in their memory.

It is told on Mull how people remembered the ends of some if the rafters were still to be seen sticking out from the bolder up to 2 centuries later.

tragedy-rock

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ewan the headless

Legend / oral history has it that the clan Maclain of Lochbuie chief had a son called Ewan ‘with the small head’. concerned that they wouldn’t inherit the clans castle and it’s lands on the chiefs death Ewan continuously hassled his father. During an argument Ewan hit his father on his head with a sword. Ewan’s father furious with Ewan complained to his brother who was chief of the MacLeans of Duart. Ewan’s uncle seeks revenge on Ewan and challenges him to battle.

On the eve before the battle Ewan comes across a washer woman at the ford of a river ( a bad omen) The clothes are clean but at she washes them blood flow from them. Ewan asks her who will win the battle tomorrow. She tells him if he gets served butter without asking for it with his porridge then he will be victorious in battle. Ewan annoyed at this answer curses the washer woman. The next morning the servants don’t bring the butter and he shouts at them ordering it. The battle doesn’t go well, Ewan aptly is hit on the head with a sword which takes the top of his head off, he manages to mount his horse, but dies as it gallops off the battle field

The clan MacLaines of Lochbuie are supposed to be haunted by Ewan The Headless and feel his presence when one of the clan dies. I would love to hear any other great Scottish legends

Ewan's home lay on the little islet at the east end of Loch Sguabain, where stonework can still be traced, a natural defens

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