"One effort more, and Scotland's free!
Lord of the Isles, my trust in thee
Is firm as Ailsa's Rock;
Rush on with Highland sword and targe,
I, with my Carrick spearmen charge;
Now forward to the shock."
From Walter Scott's poem
"The Lord of the Isles", 1814

THESE words, said in Scott's poem by King Robert the Bruce to Aonghas Óg MacDonald, chief of Clann Domnhaill, at the battle of Bannockburn, graphically describe the grandeur of the mighty chiefs of Clann Domnhaill.

Domnhaill - or Clan MacDonald - ruled over much of western Scotland for almost 200 years. Through most of the 14th and 15th centuries, their writ reached across the Hebrides, from Lewis to Islay and across a vast swathe of the mainland too, from Lochalsh and Knoydart in the north to Knapdale and Kintyre in the south. Around 1400 they even opened a branch of "MacDonalds" in Antrim, in the north of Ireland. It was said that the clan chief could muster an army 10,000 strong if needs be; if he'd been alive today, he would surely have been known as "Big Mac"!

The various branches of Clan MacDonald ruled from a number of impressive castles. They included mighty Castle Tioram at the mouth of Loch Moidart, seat of MacDonald of Clan Ranald. But the clan chief's own seat was no awesome fortress set on a commanding rock, for it modestly nestled on two tiny islands on an inland loch in Islay. The ruins of a house at Finlaggan on the island of Islay.

The twin islands of Eilean Mór (the big isle) and Eilean na Comhailre (Council Isle) on Loch Finlaggan served as the powerbase of Clan MacDonald. It was to this unassuming location that the chiefs of the branches of the clan, as well as the chiefs of clans subordinate to Clan MacDonald, came to inaugurate and acclaim their new chief. And it was here that the clan chief's Council of the Isles conducted most of its business.

The islands were linked by a causeway. The larger Eilean Mór was crowded with over 20 buildings, including a feasting hall, chapel and burial ground (though the clan chiefs were buried on the saintly island of Iona). The smaller Eilean na Comhailre housed the clan chief's own residence.

These two little islands on Loch Finlaggan lay at the heart of the MacDonald hegemony until King James IV declared Eoin MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, forfeit in 1493.

Not for nothing is Finlaggan known as the "cradle of the MacDonalds", as is remembered in a document written within 50 years of the downfall of the MacDonald Lords of the Isles in 1493:
"Into this isle of Finlagan the Lord of the Iles, quhen thai callit thame selfis Kingis of the Iles, had wont to remain oft in this ile forsaid to thair counsell: for thai had the ile well biggit [built] in palace-wark according to thair auld fassoun [fashion], quhairin thai had ane fair chapell."

Chris Tabraham is principal historian with Historic Scotland.