Iain Lom

Iain Lom MacDonald (c. 1624–c. 1710) was a Scottish Gaelic poet.

Iain Lom's family were of the MacDonalds of Keppoch. In Gaelic society, since there might often be a number of men with the same first names in any given clan, they were given sobriquets which might be based on a peculiar characteristic or feature. "Lom" is Scots Gaelic for "bald" or "bare" (lom a. luime, bare, bald, shaven, cropped), perhaps indicating he was bald. However, in Gaelic idiom, it can also mean one who is very plain-spoken, an idiom which perhaps can best be related in English to the term "bare-faced" (though this is now generally applied only to liars). He was also known as Iain Manntach which translates as "stammering John," perhaps from a speech impediment.

His family held land as tacksmen at Allt a' Chaorainn, near the present day Laggan dam.

A ruin near the road is locally known as Iain Lom's house.

His dates of birth and death are unknown, but we know that he was present at (and composed a song about) the Battle of Inverlochy (1645) as an adult, and the Treaty of Union (1707); this would presume a birthdate in the early-mid-1620s (if not earlier), and a death in the early 18th century. Most of the few details we have of his life are known from contemporary comments, and from his poetry.

There is a tradition that he attended the Scots seminary at Valladolid in Spain as a youth and was expelled for some failing or indiscretion. Some suggest that Lom maybe a reference to a tonsure.

He was apparently somewhat disabled, and was once described by a contemporary as "walking with a hirple" (i.e., a limp. Scots word originally used in 1450 by the Scots poet Robert Henryson, perhaps derived from the Old Norse word herpast "suffer from cramps").This, however, is somewhat at odds with the tradition that it was Iain Lom who walked from Brae Lochaber to Cille Chumein (now renamed Fort Augustus) to warn Montrose of the arrival of Argyll at Inverlochy and then guided the Jacobite army up Glen Turret and over the snow-covered hills into Glen Roy to surprise Argyll at Inverlochy on 2nd Feb 1645. John Buchan described this as "that flank march which is one of the great exploits in the history of British arms". Montrose's own son died a month later as a result of this desperate march. It is believed that Iain Lom accidentally killed his own brother at a skirmish on Loch Tayside (Sròn a’ Chlachain), a battle in which his father was also killed. Thereafter he refused to draw a sword. When offered one by Alasdair Mac Colla at Inverlochy he declined saying "Cathaichibh sibhse 's innse mise" (You fight and I'll narrate)His long narrative poem "Là Inbhir Lochaidh" (Day of Inverlochy)is regarded as one of the treasures of the Gaelic language and an important historical source regarding the battle.

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