Township: Kilmoluaig

Map Reference: Kilmoluaig 7

Name Type: loch

Meaning: MacConnel's island

Other Forms: Eilean MhicCònuil - ONB p73, "island of Connal's son."

Related Places:

Information:The Gaelic Otherworld, ed Ronald Black, p 265:

Return of the Dead

The plant mòthan (trailing pearlwort or sagine procumbens) was placed by old women in Tiree above the door, on the lintel (san àrd-doras), to prevent the spirits of the dead – when they revisited their former haunts – from entering the house, and it was customary in many places to place a drink of water beside the corpse previous to the funeral in case the dead should return.

There is a sept of MacDonalds called MacCannel of whom it is said in Tiree that when one dies and the body is laid out to be waked, all the dead of the race enter the room, go round the body – upon each lays his hand – and then in solemn procession march out again. This is the case at every death of one of the sept but only those who have the second sight can see the shades. A man married to one of the MacCannels whose father had been long dead enraged her beyond measure, on the occasion of the sept, by asking her why she had not gone to Balevullin (where the death had occurred) last night to see her father. (Footnote 890)

p 510:
Footnote 890: There were MacCannels in Tiree – at Caolas and Breachachadh – in 1716 (Maclean-Bristol 1998, pp. 113, 164). A tailor called Archibald McDonald is listed in a Tiree census of 1776; he his given again amongst the cottars of Kilkennethmore as ‘Archibald McCannol taylor’ in 1779 (Cregeen 1936, pp. 30, 131). There were many McConnels among the tenants of Caolas today, having presumably given way to MacDonald. Not all Tiree MacDonalds will be MacCannels, however. I do not know whether it is the name behind Eilean Mhic Conaill, a fortified crannog referred to by MacDougall and Cameron (n/d., p. 80) as ‘the island of MacConall on Loch Bhasapol.’

Iain Èirdsidh Mhòir walked to Eilean Mhic Chonail when the loch was frozen. the ice was cracking on the way back - IMcK.

Shooters built a hide on this island - IMcK.

Local Form:

Languages : Gaelic

Informants: Iain MacKinnon (Iain Chaluim), Kilmoluaig, 5/2000

Informant 2: OS