The Lost Island

 

In search of  Hinba

It's perhaps as important as lona - but where is it? The location of the island of Hinba is one of the great mysteries of Scottish history. Hinba is mentioned in Adomnan's Life of Columba in connection with some of the most significant episodes in the saint's life. It was there that the Holy Spirit appeared to Columba in the form of a divine vision, commanding him to ordain Aedan mac Gabrain as king of Dal Riata. He was also told many secrets, made clear on the obscurities of Scripture, and allowed to see into the past and future.

The saint received some of his most prestigious visitors on Hinba including four Irish saints for whom he celebrated mass there. But Hinba also had its darker side.



The island was used by the early Christians as a penitentiary. During one visit to the religious recluses there, called anchorites, Columba ordered that they be allowed an indulgence of food. To his displeasure, this was refused by one Neman mac Cathair. The saint predicted that Neman would then leave the penitentiary and be found with robbers eating mare's flesh in a wood.

Columba was nearly murdered on Hinba by an outlaw known as Lam Dess or Right Hand. Excommunicated for some woeful wrongdoing, Right Hand sought revenge. But the saint managed to evade his efforts to kill him. In a chilling epilogue, Columba's power of second sight allowed him to witness from Iona the death of his foe on a nearby island a year later.
 

The settlement on Hinba was among the earliest by Columba, and he may even have set up a monastery on Hinba before lona, But if Hinba is so startlingly important.

 why does its location remain a mystery?

The simple answer is that the island's Gaelic name, Hinba, has long since disappeared and scholars have been unable to conclusively link it with any present day islands. Any attempt to identify Hinba therefore requires a serious amount of historical detective work.

We know. Hinba almost certainly now goes by a Norse name, which isn't very helpful when we consider how many Hebridean islands now have Viking names, but we can easily eliminate those islands to which Adomán gives other names. These include Skye and Islay.

Columba moved freely between Hinba and lona and his elderly uncle, Ernan, also managed the journey. This surely tells us that Hinba is quite near lona, especially when we consider that longer voyages would have seen Columba and the other early hermits, saints and voyagers having to fight their way across towering seas in tiny vessels made from animal skins known as coracles.

Around 574 AD Columba left Hinba for lona to crown Aedan mac Gabrain. Aedan set out to meet him either from Dunadd in Argyll or Kintyre, to the south. An enormous coastal peninsula of varied terrain, this hotly-disputed area later became an almost constant battleground in the war between the MacDonalds and the Campbells. 

We might then conclude that Hinba couldn't be any islands that lie between lona and Aedan's mainland starting point, such as Jura or Scarba, as surely Columba would have just waited for Aedan there?

 Highland historian John Lorne Campbell reckoned Hinba to be Canna, a little island to the south of Skye which forms part of the group known the Small Isles. But we know from Adomnán that Hinba could be an impossibly stormy voyage from Eigg, one of the other Small Isles, suggesting that Hinba was much further from Eigg than Canna.




In any case, we shouldn't try to deduce too much about Hinba's location from the Aedan episode. Iona could have been specifically chosen for Aedan's coronation.
If we look again at the area south of lona, Columba's meeting with the four Irish saints is a strong indication that Hinba lies on the sea route between Ireland and lona.

There is also a crucial piece of topographical evidence to be considered. Adomnán states that Hinba had a highly prominent sea bay, Muirbolc Mar, with a Christian settlement nearby. Any candidate has to satisfy this description, leaving us with two possibilities, both south of lona.

One is Jura. This bullet-shaped island has the wildest terrain of any inner Hebridean island and is famous for three conical mountain peaks known as the Paps of Jura. Another striking feature is Loch Tarbert, an incision-like inlet which is several miles in length and has an early Christian chapel nearby.

The other and perhaps more likely, candidate is Oronsay. It is joined to Colonsay at low-water by a tidal strand forming a deep bay, and is more on the direct sea route from Ireland than Jura.

 Inhabited for some 7,000 years, Oronsay has an abundance of early relics, some linked to Columba, including the Sanctuary Cross which sits on the sands between the two islands.

Oronsay has a fine ruin in the shape of a beautiful 14th-century Augustinian Priory, thought to stand on the site of an earlier monastery established in 563, though this has yet to be proven. Archaeologists could solve the mystery by finding early-Christian remains at Oronsay Priory.

Even if the case for Oronsay remains inconclusive, the importance of Hinba- wherever it lies – must not be overlooked. For it was there that Columba's death was foreseen in a vision of angels bearing the great man's soul to heaven from lona.

Seil Island

 The island of Seil lies to the north-east of the Gravellachs and close to the mainland. Rae (2011) has suggested it as possible location of Hinba on various grounds. These include its association with Brendan, its location on an inshore trade route from Antrim to the north, and its suitability for a substantial settlement.

 He suggests that the Muirbolcmar could refer to the Seil Sound and narrows at Clachan Bridge where the "bag" captures the rapidly flowing water that floods under the bridge and also argues for this location on etymological grounds. Equating "Hinba" with the Gaelic Inbhir, he notes that the adjacent mainland parish of Kilninver means "church of Inbhir" and suggests that the derivation of "Seil" may be of Scandinavian origin with similarities to the East Frisian place name Zijl or Syl meaning a "seep or passage of water". 

This, he proposes, could have been a Norse interpretation of Hinba/Inbhir. However, Mac an Tàilleir (2003) notes that Kilninver or Cill an Inbhir "appears to mean 'church by the river mouth', although an older form of Cill Fhionnbhair, 'Finbar's church' also appears.

It has also been proposed that Seil may be the Innisibsolian referred to in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, which records a victory of the Scots over a Viking force during the time of Donald II in the 9th century.

 Innisibsolian is of Goidelic origin and if Solian is derived from 'Seil' as this early date it is hardly likely to have had a different Gaelic name prior to the arrival of the Norse. Furthermore, although south of Iona, Seil is not on a direct route to Iona from Ireland and there are very strong tides in this area.

In search of Hinba - Robert Rae - Seil Island




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Broch Towers

Image
Towering Enigmas     For most of us, our home is a part refuge, part status symbol. That was just as true during the later Bronze and Iron Age, between 1,000 BC and 100 AD when Scotland was covered with the farms of settled and prosperous tribes. The centrepiece of these farms was a large roundhouse. In the south and east of the country, where timber was plentiful, these were usually massive wooden buildings with conical roofs rising up to 40ft above the ground. Unfortunately, centuries of intensive farming have wiped out all traces of them from the Lowlands. Further north, wood was less easily available, and so prehistoric farmers built their roundhouses from stone. These Atlantic roundhouses, so-called because they are most common around Scotland's Atlantic coasts, include the most imposing of all Iron Age buildings - the broch towers. Among the finest architectural achievements of prehistoric Europe, they are found only in Scotland. Some of the best examples are located in ...
Read more

Pictish Chains

Image
  The massive Pictish chains are our most striking examples of post-Roman jewellery. These precious and weighty symbols of power were made using recycled Roman silver. Just 10 of these chains have been found, mostly in Southern Scotland . They belonged to the tribal rulers, worn around their necks on important occasions. The heaviest, found in 1809 Caledonian Canal near Inverness, d uring the construction. It originally weighed just over 3 kg (6% lb). These marvellous objects, Scotland's earliest Crown Jewels, can be admired in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Both Photos : The Whitecleuch chain,  was found in Whitecleuch, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1869.
Read more

Declaration of Arbroath

Image
 Who was where,  as the seals were set? Who were the 40 people who put their seals to the Declaration of Arbroath to convince Pope John XXII that Robert Bruce was their rightful king? Some were Bruce supporters who had benefited from their loyalty to his cause in lands and titles. Nobles like Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray; Walter Stewart, the Steward of Scotland; Robert Keith, marischal of Scotland; James, lord of Douglas, the famous 'Good Sir James'; and Gilbert Hay, of Errol in Perthshire. Gaeldom, too, lent its support. Bruce in his hour of darkness had fled to the Celtic west where the MacDonalds sheltered him - and it is interesting to note, in the light of later history, that the Campbells were Bruce's kin.  Donald Campbell is listed, and his brother Neil, who had fought for Bruce since 1306, had married the king's sister, Mary. Others were more reluctant converts to Bruce—particularly those on the front line between Scotland and England in East Lothian where dip...
Read more

King MacBeth

Image
 MacBeth The real story of the man is far from Shakespeare's celebrated version. Indeed, MacBeth's 17-year reign was a prosperous and generous one, and he was to be fondly remembered as the last great Celtic king of Scots. The single most important fact we know about MacBeth is enshrined in a line borrowed from a Latin poem composed within a generation of his death. It says: "In his time there were productive seasons" - fertile tempus erat. Or, as Andrew Wyntoun, the 15th Century Scottish chronicler put it: "All his tyme was gret plenté/Aboundand baith in land and sé." Scots in MacBeth's time still believed in vestiges of sacral kingship, which meant that if calamity came upon the land in such disasters as war, famine, pestilence or atrocious weather, the solution was to sacrifice the king. MacBeth could thus have earned no higher praise. According to an Irish poem, he actually radiated the prosperity for which he was so famous - he was 'ruddy-faced,...
Read more

The Blue Men

Image
  The Blue Men The three Shiant Islands, where the amazing find of the priceless gold tore was made, lie in the waters of the Minch, east of Harris, and are known in Gaelic as the enchanted isles. Strong tidal currents are not the only hazard facing those who venture into these waters. Legend has it that the Blue Men of the Minch live in the Sound of Shiant, and that they are either fallen angels who landed in the sea after being ejected from Heaven, or storm kelpies, Sailors are advised to treat the Blue Men with great respect. They should speak to the Blue Ones in rhyming Gaelic couplets, or else be dragged to the bottom of the Minch. A minister in the late 19th century recorded his meeting with one of them. He said "a blue-covered man, with a long, grey face, and floating from the waist out of the water came, so close, I could almost touch him.'' The strikingly attractive Shiants are a cluster of three islands and several islets made of basalt, formed by the eruption of...
Read more

Inchcolm Antiphoner

Image
SONGS ACROSS TIME Inchcolm Abbey, where the Antiphoner (a musical manuscript) originated. Scotland's Inchcolm Antiphoner is one of the most important yet neglected manuscripts in the history of early European music. It contains the only definitive remnants of the music of the Celtic Church, which was responsible for Christianising large areas of Europe. And it includes music probably composed in the 7th century, whose melodies are as unique as the organisation and practices of this ancient Church. The manuscript also shows that from an early date, Scotland's music has had a distinctive identity. It was written down, probably in the 13th century, on the island of Inchcolm, which lies in the Firth of Forth and can be clearly seen from Edinburgh. The music, known as plainchant, is the unaccompanied vocal music of the early Church, and it formed part of the soundtrack of the arrival of Christianity in Scotland. Plainchant was sung tirelessly by monks as a means of providing their d...
Read more

Ystrat Clud

Image
 Ystrat Clud Britons are the ancestors no one seems to have heard about. They were Christians, spoke Welsh, worshipped at Govan, and ruled from Carlisle to Glasgow for 600 years. They are the nearest thing we have to a 'native' people! They called it Ystrat Clud - Strathclyde. Their church was at Govan, their hunting estate at Partick, their stronghold was Cadzow near Hamilton. They were the Welsh forefathers of today's Glaswegians. They were the Britons. Of all the peoples who made up Scotland in the early historic period, the group who are probably least well. Known to the average Scot was the Britons. This is odd, as these are the people who were here when written history began, the nearest thing Scotland has to a “native” people. When the Romans arrived in Britain, first in the 1st century BC, and then during their forays into Scotland in the 1st century AD, Britain was inhabited by Britons from south to north. The Romans called them Brittones. The languages spoken thro...
Read more

Somerled

Image
 King of the Isles Somerled, King of the Isles, was feared and revered in equal measure in the 12th century, during which time he stood like a giant over Scotland's entire north-western seaboard. For many, his name has retained an almost mythical quality, while others have sought to portray him as an unruly rogue. In fact, he campaigned to defend the Scots kingship and government from what many saw as destructive foreign influences acting on kings David I and Malcolm IV. Somerled's kingship was in the heart of the ancient and distinctively Scottish Viking-Gael land, and he had Gaelic and Norse origins. His name in Gaelic, Somhairlidh, comes from the Norse sumarlidi meaning 'summer raider' or Viking, and his family was firmly among the ruling Celto-Norse chieftains of the Western Isles in the 11th and 12th centuries. Little is known about his early life, but by the 1130s Somerled had emerged as an important political figure. His royal titles were Ri Innse Gall, 'King...
Read more

Govan Stones

Image
 Govan's ancient treasures It is easy to pass Govan Old Parish Church without suspecting the remarkable history that lies within. On the banks of the River Clyde, flanked by the Pearce Institute and the offices of a housing association, the church does not outwardly reflect antiquity. It was built in 1820, but the land on which it stands has been used for Christian worship since the 9th century when it was the Britons major Christian centre before that. It is home to a collection of early carved stones that attract archaeologists from all over the world.  Long before the birth of Christ, this was a significant place. Evidence has been found that Bronze Age people settled in Govan. It was then almost an island in the River Clyde, which could be reached only by a ford. It is not certain when the first church was built there, but the collection of sculpted stones spanning the 9th to 11th centuries suggests it was very early indeed. In fact, they represent a major school of stone-...
Read more

The French Connection (part 1 of 3)

Image
 The Auld Alliance Part 1 On July 12, 1503, King James IV of Scotland wrote to his new ally and future father-in-law, Henry VII of England. The English king, reflecting on the grandly named Treaty of Perpetual Peace concluded between Scotland and England the previous year, had demanded that James IV repudiate the Franco-Scottish alliance. In his reply, the Scottish king courteously informed Henry VII that, though he had at that time no intention of renewing the Franco Scottish alliance, nevertheless 'we and our predecessors have always been accustomed to it'. James was exaggerating, but not by much. At the outset of the 16th century, the 'Auld Alliance' had already endured for more than two centuries and would last for a further 60 years. Why should an alliance between Scotland, a small kingdom on the northwestern fringes of Europe, and France, a major European power, endure for so long? And why should many modern Scots, and some French, still regard the "Auld Alli...
Read more