[1] Evan MacColl was born at Kenmore on the banks of Loch Fyne, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, on 21 September 1808 when the area was thoroughly Gaelic speaking.

His father was Dugald MacColl who was possessed of "the richest store of Celtic song of any man living in his part of the country.

His poetic efforts began in boyhood, founded on a rich vein of the native Gaelic literary tradition surrounding him in youth and inherited from his family, although also inflected by the growing influence of Lowland Scots and anglophone literature.

He remained in Liverpool until 1850, when, because of declining health, he obtained six months' leave of absence and visited friends and relatives in Glengarry County, Ontario.

[1] Dr. Norman McLeod, editor of Good Words, wrote as follows: Evan MacColl's poetry is the product of a mind impressed with the beauty and the grandeur of the lovely scenes in which his infancy has been nursed.

Wild indeed and sometimes rough are his rhymes and epithets, yet there are thoughts so new and striking—images and comparisons so beautiful and original—feelings so warm and fresh that stamp this Highland peasant as no ordinary man.

His poetic gifts were inherited by his daughter, Miss Mary J. MacColl,[6] who published a meritorious little volume of poems entitled "Bide a wee," highly commended for their sweetness and delicacy.