Dh'fhalbh mi Leis na Lùban Laghach

On 20 December 1912, the Rev. Thomas Sinton gave a lecture to the Gaelic Society of Inverness in which he referred to a journey he had made to Both Fhleisginn and Foithir on the eastern side of Loch Ness. He told a story about a place called Fothar Beag or Pothar Beag, on the Knockie estate, which at one time belonged to a man known as Iain Cinn a’ Mhunaidh.

Iain was courting a gentlewoman of the Grant family who lived in the Big House in Glenmoriston, and he would frequently cross the loch to visit her. He would take a young man with him as a servant, and the servant was required to carry a portmanteau. The portmanteau was filled with straw, and on top of that there was a single pair of yellow trews. The two men — and the portmanteau — would arrive at Invermoriston House, where they would receive hospitality for two or three days.

Each morning the servant would go to the door of his master’s room and ask, in a loud voice: “Which outfit shall we wear today, Lord of Fothar?”

And he would receive the same reply every day: “We shall wear the yellow trews that are in the mouth of the bag.”

On the night of the Seven Sins, the servant said to his master: “Oh, what will become tonight of the cattle with the black and white horns, Lord of Fothar?”

Iain Cinn a’ Mhunaidh replied: “Those that the byres do not hold will be held by Coire an Iuthair.”

The courtship continued, and Iain Cinn a’ Mhunaidh married the Grant gentlewoman. After some time he brought her home to Fothar Beag, where the new Lady of Fothar composed the song — in horror and regret.

In the version of the song given by Joan MacKenzie, the deceived woman goes to Ireland, but there is no mention of Ireland in the words recorded by Thomas Sinton:

Oh, I went away with the lovely ringlets, I went away with the ringlets; Oh, I went away with the lovely ringlets And I encountered deception.

It is a pity I was not in the warm house, At the feast without rising; When I answered my sweetheart, The cattle were the bond between us.

When I reached your township There was not a stick joined to another; There was nothing but the house and the byre, And the provisions were in Ireland.

But a little hut at the foot of the slope Belonging to my sister-in-law; She had only a little meal, And it was not all her own.

She had only a little milk, And she did not know how to preserve it; My choice would have been to return home If my father had been at peace with me.

In his book Story and Song from Loch Ness-side (Inverness, 1914), Alexander MacDonald says that the song was common throughout the Loch Ness districts, and he gives the words as follows:

I went away with the lovely ringlets, I went away with the ringlets; The ringlets, the lovely ringlets — The ringlets were my desire.

You promised me a great house and a byre Where hundreds would visit; You said you had cattle-folds And herdsmen to match.

You had no great house nor byre, Though I might have needed them; Only a little hut at the foot of the slope That belonged to my sister-in-law.

She had only a little meal, And it was not all her own; She had only a little milk, And she could not preserve it.

When we reached the township We found them without rising; I left the sick herdsman And the tearful dairymaid.

The cows and calves unloosed, And the small calves lowing. My choice would have been to return home If my father had been at peace with me.

It is a pity that I was not lying Seven weeks without rising, Before I answered the call of love And the cattle’s bond came upon me.

A note on ‘Cinn a Monaidh’ and ‘Fothar Beag’:

Cinn a’ Mhonaidh/Mhunaidh/Mhunghaidh is located approximately 1.5km north of Loch Knockie: Lochan a’ Chinn Mhonaich flows into Allt a’ Chinn Mhonaich, which then runs downhill into Loch Ness.

Fothar Beag (also Foithir, Faithir, Foithear, Fodhair) and anglicised as ‘Forbeg’ is not located on any extant maps. However, it is referred to twice by the eminent toponymist, William J. Watson (1865-1948):

“The preposition fo, under, is found in its strictly local sense in foithir, under-land, flat land lying under a steep eminence. Hence Foyers (with English plural) and several other places of the same name in Stratherrick, e.g. am Foithir beag, Foithir Mhic Cloain.”

(‘Topographical Varia’ in The Celtic Review, Vol. V (July 1908-April 1909) (Edinburgh: Norman MacLeod, 1909), pp. 148-154 (148).)

“[…] shelving declivities called individually am Faithir, am Faithear, pl. na Faithrichean. This term recurs on Loch Ness side as Foithear, anglicized as Foyers (an English plural); the Laird of Foyers is Fear Foithreach. In the same district another form, fothair, occurs : am Fothair Beag, with an old cemetery, is behind Knockie ; Fothair Mac Clothain is below Dulcrag ; there is also Tollaigh an Fhothair, ‘Tollie of the fothair.’ These places are all on terraced slopes above Loch Ness, and it can be safely taken that the term means ‘a slope, a terraced declivity.’ It seems probable that it is with this term we have to do in the names that contain fother or fodder, fether, or fetter, for, so far as I can ascertain, the distinctive feature of the places so named is the presence of a slope, often or usually shelving or terraced.”

(The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland (Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons, 1926), p.509.)

Charles Fraser-Makintosh (1828-1901) also remarks:

“Upon enquiring of Mr Alexander Fraser, an old and respected resident at Loinchlerich of Errogie, he was good enough to write on 23rd January, 1890, that there was a place in Gaelic ‘Phoran’, otherwise Forbeg, two or three miles to the west of Foyers Mains, now a part of Knockie Estate, but of old belonging to Lovat, and one time a populous place. The famous yew of Stratherrick is situated on Forbeg.”

(‘The Frasers of Foyers’ in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Vol. XVIII (1891-92), pp.17-31 (21))

This places Fothar Beag between Loch nan Lann and Loch Ness.