GENERAL DESCRIPTION 7 



small size. Gravestones show that burials were made within 

 and around the buildings. Of some of these old structures 

 hardly a trace now remains. Time, in its work of destruc- 

 tion, was aided by man, who found the stones (as well 

 as those constructing the duns) useful for various other 

 purposes. The dedications were to Columba (Oransay), 

 Oran, Catan, Ciaran, Coinneach, Maol-Rubha (Cill-a- 

 Rubha), Moire (Mary two dedications, one in Colonsay 

 and one in Oransay), Bride (Bridget), and Catriona 

 (Catherine). 



Among the possessions confirmed by David II. in 1344 to 

 John, Lord of the Isles, we find Colonsay included. The 

 island was occupied until the seventeenth century by the 

 M'Duffies or M'Phees. They held it from the M'Donalds, but 

 there is no evidence to show at what period they first came 

 into possession, or indeed that they ever had a written charter 

 of the island. After the forfeiture of the Lordship of the 

 Isles, M'Phee, like M'Donald of Islay, became a tenant of 

 the Crown. M'Phee was clerk or secretary to the council 

 or parliament of the M'Donalds of Islay. Their stronghold 

 was evidently Dun Eibhinn, from which their title of Lord 

 of Dun Eibhinn, engraved on a tombstone in lona, had been 

 derived. A Donald M'Duffie or M'Phee of Colonsay wit- 

 nessed a charter of John, Earl of Ross, in 1463. In 1609 

 another of the name and designation was present at the 

 assembly of island chiefs in lona presided over by Bishop 

 Knox, when the nine famous statutes of Icolmkill were 

 enacted. 



Something of the history of the M'Phees may be learned 

 from the inscriptions on their tombstones. Their burial- 

 place was a small chapel built against the south wall of the 

 church in Oransay. It contained some of the sculptured 

 stones now arranged along the north side of the church. 

 One of these is to the memory of Murchardus M'Duffie, 

 who died in 1539. Another was over the tomb of Sir 



