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Short references to Fletchers

  • (With references to the 'mythological' literature of the Celts)... Truly a marvellous output of texts and translations, rivalling any in the whole range of our Gaelic literature. And the above catalogue does not by any means exhaust the list. The wonder is that the sage should be found in remote and outlying corners of the Highlands floating by oral tradition down to our own time. Fletcher got a version about 1750. Irvine took down part of the verse about 1801 from a fox-hunter on Tayside, Carmichael from an old Macneill in Barra in 1871. The story is of additional interest to us because it is laid partly in Ireland and partly in Scotland, among that beautiful scenery around Loch Etive so well known to native and tourist (p. 148).

    Magnus Maclean (1998) [1902] The Literature of the Celts, Senate (originally Blackie and Sons).

  • (With respect to families associated with the Lord of the Isles...) Other families became associated with particular crafts and skills. The Macintyres, descended from MacNeill the shipwright, were known as carpenters. The MacEacherns, originally from Kintyre, became hereditary swordsmiths in Islay and made the famous six-foot blades with the distinctive Islay tilt. Traces of their early forge remain behind the rock face of Creag Uinnsin, about three-quarters of a mile from Kilchoman Church. In Glenoe, the Fhleistear or MacPheidearin - sometimes simply called the Fletchers - were the arrow-makers. The wax for bow strings was furnished by Baill-na-Gail-Bhuin; the arrow shafts came from Esragoin in Lorne, and the bows themselves from the yew trees of Glenmure (p.216-217).

    Ronald Williams (1997) The Lords of the Isles: The Clan Donald and the early Kingdom of the Scots, House of Lochar: Colonsay.

  • (Various References particularly in relation to the MacGregors and Campbells)

    Ian Grimble (?) Clans and Chiefs, Blond and Briggs.