Join us online via Zoom on Wednesday 21 October at 19:30 UK time to hear Ronnie Black, Director of the Dewar Project (www.dewarproject.com), share the stories of the Brooch of Lorn which were recorded by John Dewar.

John Dewar (1802–72) was commissioned by the 8th duke of Argyll to go around collecting Gaelic stories about Highland history. His manuscripts are in the Argyll Estates Archives and the National Library of Scotland. He offers seven stories about the Brooch of Lorn. Three of them tell how Bruce lost his brooch in a fierce encounter with the MacDougalls in 1306. Two of them tell how a Campbell dairymaid stole the brooch from the MacDougalls in the 17th century. One of them tells how it passed from the Campbells of Braglen to Campbell of Lochnell, then was given back to the MacDougalls by the 9th duke of Argyll. If true, that would have been in the 1830s. But finally there’s a completely different story telling how the brooch was dug out of the ground about 1854 and purchased by MacDougall of Ardincaple. Unless these last two stories are about two different brooches, they can’t both be true.

Speaker Biography

Ronald Black lectured in Celtic Studies at Edinburgh University from 1979 to 2001. He is now an Honorary Fellow of the university. He has published various anthologies of Gaelic verse, also The Gaelic Otherworld (2005), To the Hebrides (2007), and The Campbells of the Ark (2017). He founded the Dewar Project in 2017. The project’s first book, John Dewar’s Islay, Jura and Colonsay, appeared in 2024. The next three, John Dewar’s Perthshire, John Dewar’s Loch Lomond and John Dewar’s Robert Bruce, will appear during the next couple of years.

Booking information

This event is FREE* for members of the Friends.

*Please note: Friends must be logged in to their web account to receive their discount!

Tickets for non-members are £10. Find out more about becoming a Friend here: Become a Friend of Argyll Estates Archives – Friends of Argyll Estates Archives

Alternatively, you can book your place by emailing friends@argyllestatesarchives.org.

Seminars

Seminars

Dewar on the Brooch of Lorn

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