256 Notes on Sport and Travel \ 



could catch on the altar of reconciliation. Perhaps 

 the cause of their peculiar position may be found in 

 their own tradition that they were Norwegians, and 

 took the name of Gun, possibly connected with 

 Gunther, from the son of the King of Denmark who 

 settled in Caithness.' 



' Weel, sir, it may be, but they were sometimes 

 called Clan Cruner, from one Cruner who was their 

 chief But, indeed, the Earls did not always finish 

 them so easily ; for they caught them once on Ben 

 Graem, and shot their arrows too soon, and the Guns 

 took them at short range and beat them off, and then 

 went away south, to Loch Broom, where they were 

 attacked again, and sair harried.' 



' Well, Donald, to cap your story, I will tell you 

 another, which shows that the Guns were not always 

 as sharp as their neighbours. They had been long 

 at feud with the Kames, and at last a reconciliation 

 was proposed. It was agreed that each party were 

 to send twelve horse to the chapel of Saint Tayre, 

 near Girnigo, to arrange the matter. The Guns sent 

 their twelve horse, and when they reached the chapel, 

 the twelve riders, like pious lads, went in to hear 

 mass ; whilst they were inside, the Kames arrived 

 with their twelve horse, as agreed, but they had taken 

 the liberty of putting two men on each horse, and 

 they overpowered the Guns, and dirked every man of 

 them. Old Sir Robert says that he saw the blood 

 on the walls more than a hundred and fifty years 

 afterwards. But hang the Guns ! let us think of the 



