The strange origin of some Colonsay Macneills

Colonsay was home to the Macduffie clan before it became the seat of the southern branch of Clan Macneill when they were forced to abandon Gigha in 1530.

Of the many Colonsay Macneills today however, some are not descended from that branch at all but from the MacNeills of Barra. How this came about is quite amazing! The story is that the wives of Macduffie of Colonsay and Macneill of Barra were both expecting at the same time and it was arranged that there would be an exchange of the infants (to strengthen friendship ties].

So Macneil’s wife set off in her Highland galley from Kishmul Castle for her confinement in Colonsay, but it was a long journey and the winter weather turned to storm. They were still some distance from Colonsay when it began to snow as the poor woman went into labour, giving birth to a son. Fearing that mother and child would die from exposure in the bitter weather, the crew decided to kill the cow which they had on board and disembowel it.

Throwing the gralloch (entrails) overboard, they placed the mother and her child inside the warm carcass and there they remained safe and warm until they reached Colonsay that evening. Known as ‘John of the Ocean’, the child was brought up on Colonsay, and made it his home and that’s how his descendants hail from the Macneills of Barra rather than the Gigha branch.

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