Lauded Scottish Gaelic poet Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir (anglicised as Duncan Ban Macintyre) has had an inscribed flagstone unveiled today at Makars’ Court in Edinburgh.
Duncan Ban now joins the illustrious company of Sir Walter Scott, Rabbie Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and others at Makars’ Court where Scotland’s literary greats have been enshrined since 1988. He is widely acknowledged to have formed a key part of the golden age of Gaelic poetry in the 18th century.
At today’s ceremony there were speeches from Culture and Communities Convener, Val Walker along with Chair of Ionad Gàidhlig Dhùn Èideann and Professor of Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh, Wilson McLeod. Dr Anja Gunderloch again from the University and an expert on Duncan Ban also spoke.
There was also a moving rendition of the poet’s songs from musician and singer Mary Ann Kennedy, one of Gaelic’s foremost modern exponents. The event was concluded by a touching bagpipes performance from Andrew MacIntyre, a descendant of Duncan Ban.
The flagstone contains the following text:
Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir (Duncan Ban Macintyre)
1724-1812
‘S e mùthadh air an t-saoghal
An coire laghach gaolach
A dhol a-nis air faondradh
(A change has come upon the world
That the fine, beloved corrie
Should now be desolate)
From The Songs of Duncan Ban Macintyre (Edinburgh: Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1952), pp. 176-77.
The sponsor for the flagstone was Chair of Ionad Gàidhlig Dhùn Èideann and Professor of Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh, Wilson McLeod.
Culture and Communities Convener, Councillor Val Walker said:
Duncan Ban’s addition to Makars’ Court celebrates his seminal impact as a poet and he can now take his well deserved place alongside the finest minds in our nation’s rich history.
Makars’ Court is an important stop on the Old Town tourist trail and allows our residents and visitors to reflect on these key figures. It was fantastic to be at today’s unveiling and to hear more about a true titan of Gaelic literature and society. I would like to thank the sponsor of this flagstone Professor Wilson McLeod for making this possible and for his unwavering commitment in promoting Gaelic here in Edinburgh and beyond.
I’d also like to give special thanks to David Lindsay of Stoneworks who designed and built this flagstone, one of 44 over the years. We understand that this flagstone will be his last and we are incredibly grateful for his service, craftmanship and commitment over the years.
Chair of Ionad Gàidhlig Dhùn Èideann, Wilson McLeod said:
Duncan Ban was a real literary celebrity in his day and has remained one of Gaeldom's best-loved poets through the generations. He had a strong connection to Edinburgh and has a special place in Edinburgh’s Gaelic heritage. He lived for many years just off the High Street, and his wife ran a pub in the Lawnmarket, so a celebration in Edinburgh and a permanent commemoration of his life and work in Makars’ Court are particularly appropriate.
About Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir (Duncan Ban MacIntyre):
Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir (Duncan Ban Macintyre) is one of the most famous and best-loved of all Gaelic poets. Although he was not literate, he had a kaleidoscopic vocabulary and extraordinary verbal dexterity.
His songs describe the natural environment of the Gàidhealtachd, especially the deer and other wildlife, in vivid and minute detail. His works also express dismay at the economic and social changes that came over the Gàidhealtachd in his time, as expressed in the song from which the proposed extract is taken, ‘Cumha Coire a’ Cheathaich’ (Lament for Misty Corrie).
Born in Glen Orchy in Argyll in 1724, he served, somewhat reluctantly, on the Hanoverian side during the 1745 Jacobite rising but left in 1746 for employment as a gamekeeper on the Argyll-Perthshire border.
He relocated in 1766 to serve until 1793 in the Edinburgh City Guard, the city’s police force. He died in 1812 is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, where he is commemorated by a fine sandstone obelisk.
About Makars’ Court:
Makars’ Court at the Writers’ Museum celebrates the achievements of Scottish writers and was inaugurated in 1988. This ongoing project to create a Scottish equivalent of Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey was the initiative of the former Culture and Leisure Department, in association with the Saltire Society and Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Ltd, as it was then known.
Makars’ Court, an evolving national literary monument, is located beside the Writers' Museum in Lady Stairs Close. There, people can read some of the famous words of great Scottish writers inscribed in the flagstones, with quotes ranging from the 14th century John Barbour to Dame Muriel Spark, who died in 2006. New flagstones continue to be added.
The Scots word Makar means "one who fashions, constructs, produces, prepares, etc". (Dictionary of the Scots Language), and in a literary context it is the role of the poet or author as a skilled and versatile worker in the craft of writing. We have many such wordsmiths living in Scotland, and to celebrate the importance of writers in our lives, in this UNESCO City of Literature, Edinburgh has adopted its own version of the Poet Laureate: the Edinburgh Makar. The office of Edinburgh Makar is currently held by the poet Hannah Lavery. The office of Scotland’s Makar is currently held by the poet Kathleen Jamie.