THE BIRLIN or The Highland Galley
‘Oban Times’
8th March 1894, Page 6,
Bottom right hand corner
BENBECULA - Interesting
discovery.
“During the recent storms
and high tides, by which Benbecula has been visited, the upper part of an
ancient boat has made its appearance in the sands between Benbecula and South
Uist.
It was discovered beside
the rocks at Sgeir na Birlin, and it is believed that the rocks derived their
name from the birlin recently found there. The length from the stem to the
stern is about 4Oft.
No local tradition can
throw any light on how the boat came to be embedded in the sand, but there is
still living in Hacklett, Benbecula an old woman who says that that she heard
from her great grandfather or grandfather that a boat of that description had
struck the rocks near where it was found.
If that is true it must
have lain there for about two centuries. When the tide and weather permit the
boat will be excavated.”
Local tradition: In the late 1600’s a
birlinn was wrecked and the crew were buried on the land above the wreck. The
wreck is 15yds from the shore and now ‘humped backed’ with a sand dune
‘The Scottish Highlander’
10th March 1894, Page 5,
Bottom right hand page.
SOUTH UIST - Curious find
“It is reported that a
birlin - the ancient Highland chieftain’s war boat -has been exposed by the
recent gales in the South Ford in Benbecula. The birlin seems to be of
considerable size, as some 30ft. of her length is said to be seen at present
In connection with this
matter, tradition says that a birlin, on a raiding expedition, struck one
stormy day at Rudha Aird-an Eoin some 200 years ago and immediately sank. The
whole of her crew perishing in the gurgling water. The bodies were washed
ashore at the point referred to, and were interned in a green spot close by,
where they are mouldering to this day.
The birlin was soon
covered over by the continuously shifting sands and was never observed till
now. The wood of the birlin is said to be in an excellent state of preservation
and is extremely hard.”
Local Tradition: Two or three women were saved because their skirts filled
with air and they were able to get ashore.
If you have any
information about this wreck please let me know or write it in the visitors
book. Thank you. D.A.MacQ. 01397 702 297
We
do have not a single surviving plank from a birlinn! These boats were central to the Hebridean way of life. The whole
fabric of island life is dependent upon the sea. Colonies were established,
raids mounted, rents exacted, goods exchanged, cattle ferried, funerals carried
- all by sea. first and foremost Highland galleys existed in wood - as
commercial or military vehicles, but they also had life in as carvings on grave
slabs; - as images of power, and as poetry in the words of the Bards.
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For
800 years galleys supported the Hebridean economy. That until 1266 the
islanders were at the crossroads of an international trading empire. That their
boats were up-to-date and that they were as close to Bergen by sea as they were
to Edinburgh by land. That the loss of Norwegian sovereignty in 1266 condemned
the Isles to commercial isolation and economic decline. The Hebrideans had
nothing with which to oppose the Norse, for whom distance was no object,
remoteness no security. To the Scots they became an intractable military
problem.
By transporting mercenaries to Ireland,
Highland galleys subsidised island life until the Union of the Crowns. They
survived because they were perfectly suited to their environment and to the
hit-and-run tactics of a warrior aristocracy. In the end they disappeared for a
combination of reasons: the ending of mercenary service in Ireland; the defeat
of Clan Donald in the South by the Campbells, and the effects of relative
economic disadvantage. They could only survive in a situation of political and
military independence. Norse sovereignty largely allowed them to do this.
Between the Treaty of Perth (1266) and the Union of Crowns (1603) these
conditions were removed.
Galleys
were clinker-built wooden boats that could be rowed or sailed. They had a
single mast bearing as square sail. They could carry 40 oars and a crew of up
to three men per oar. Both stem and stern were steeply pitched. From the first
glance it is apparent that they are direct descendents of Viking ships. The
most important single difference is the replacement of the steering-board
by a stern rudder. For 800 years the galley was the dominant boat-type in
the Hebrides. One of the hallmarks of West Highland culture during the late
Middle Ages was its stone sculpture. We have over 600 surviving grave slabs and
some 60 stone crosses from the years 1300- 1600. Many are badly worn but enough
survive in good or reasonable condition to indicate both the skill of their
artists and the cultural vitality of the society that produced them.
The
history of Hebrides between c.800 and the last Norse invasion of 1263 is
troubled and volatile. It is not at all 'dark'. We know quite a lot from Irish
Annals, Icelandic sagas and the Chronicles of the various peoples of Britain.
It was a long and turbulent period - in many ways a revolutionary one. The
Hebrides were on a geographical crossroads; forced into contact with richer
cultures in Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland. Despite the violence and social
dislocation, this brought a wealth and vitality to the area that contrasts with
the slow isolated decay characteristic of more recent centuries. In that
particular crucible was forged a Hebridean culture which attempted independence
in the early Middle Ages. It was eventually snuffed out; disjointed from Man
and Dublin, isolated from Scandinavia and suppressed by Scotland. One of the
many disservices of the Jacobite myth is that it has consigned us into
believing that the issues of Highland autonomy were decided in the eighteenth
century. In purely dynastic terms they were. In other respects the Jacobite
risings appear as a disastrous diversion. In the context of political
competition between two starkly different cultures the real issues had been decided
centuries earlier. The irony is that the Highlanders remained so loyal to a
family that had brutally diminished their own independence. Perhaps we can tell
something of this culture by focusing on its galleys; symbolic then, symbolic
now, of the power and reach of their maritime world.'
