Iain Lom

He was appointed by King Charles II as his poet laureate,[1][2] Iain Lom has long been considered to have a permanent place in the canon of Scottish Gaelic literature.

[5] He was apparently somewhat disabled, and was once described by a contemporary as "walking with a hirple" (i.e., a limp)[6] This, however, is at odds with the tradition that it was Iain Lom who walked from Lochaber to Cille Chumein (now renamed Fort Augustus) to warn Montrose of the arrival of Argyll at Inverlochy Castle and then guided the royalist army up Glen Turret and over the snow-covered hills into Glen Roy to surprise Argyll at Inverlochy on 2 February 1645.

He was a man of strong passions, none of which exceeded his hatred of Clan Campbell, as is evident from the following from Là Inbhir Lochaidh (The Day of Inverlochy)

The clan was governed by Alasdair Buidhe (Yellow- haired Alexander), uncle to the heir, as regent until the young chief and his brother, Raghnall, returned from their education in Rome.

The guilty parties were surprised at a house near Inverlair, where Iain Lom is said in the oral tradition to have personally decapitated all seven assassins with the very sword they had used to slay the Keppoch heirs.

Iain Lom then showed all 7 heads to the Chief of Glengarry, as a public rebuke for his earlier refusal to follow the code of conduct.

Cath Raon Ruairidh, the Gaelic name for Killiecrankie, is cited as evidence that Viscount Dundee was shot just below his breast plate, and not, as later suggested by Professor Terry, through his left eye.

[14] Iain Lom dismissed William of Orange as "a borrowed king" and condemned Queen Mary for showing disloyalty to her father.

While Iain Lom's work continues many features of the classical tradition, including the syllabic metrical rules of Dán Díreach, he wrote in the everyday Gaelic vernacular of his time.

Kilgour says that he never married others say that he had a son, a good poet in his own right, who was killed in a skirmish at High Bridge in Glen Spean by Dòmhnall Donn (Brown haired Donald) of Bohuntine, a bard with family ties to the Keppoch Murderers.

This is reportedly why, when Dòmhnall Donn, who was a famous cattle raider, was awaiting execution in Inverness, Iain Lom, as a man of great influence, made no move to help him.

[19][18] Iain Lom is said in the local oral tradition to lie buried in the churchyard of Cille Choiril, just east of Roybridge and near his home at Allt a' Chaorainn.