[1][2] He was born and raised in a Gaelic-speaking community on Great Bernera, near the Isle of Lewis, and excelled in his secondary studies at the Nicholson Institute.
While MacAmhlaigh did National Service in the Royal Navy between 1955 and 1958, he learned Russian[3] and spent time in Turkey.
[4][2] He began to work for the university of Edinburgh in 1958, teaching first in English and Linguistics, later the Celtic Studies Department.
As with other Scottish Gaelic poets, MacAmhlaigh made English verse translations of his own work.
"However, other MacAulay poems remain untranslated and to an extent untranslatable, since, influenced perhaps by e. e. cummings, he was intrigued by the word-play specific to a particular language.