This manuscript bears all the marks of a MacMhuirich provenance. The scribe who wrote the greater part of it is unknown, but his Gaelic hand is precise and well formed. Two poems (folios 9 verso, 10 verso) are in the hand of Niall MacMhuirich (circa 1639-1726), of whom the chief scribe was evidently a contemporary. A third hand, unknown, is responsible for the text at folio 32, which is further distinguished from foregoing folios by its common ‘pot’ watermark - the rest having what appears to be a crowned double-headed eagle displayed.

The latest dateable poem here was composed before 1678 (folios 9 verso, 16 recto); the manuscript was written after 1660. Imitations of the signature of Cathal MacMhuirich (flourished 1618-1650) at folios 7 verso and 15 verso suggest that some of the material was copied from the writing of that poet. On the other hand, at folios 1 recto, 3 verso, 12 verso, 15 verso, 20 recto and 27 recto words from the text are repeated in available spaces by intrusive hands, indicating that still farther copies were made. On folio 1 recto the hand in question is Niall MacMhuirich’s. An 18th-century hand has written ‘Donald Johnestone with my [hand] / (?)Argile’ on folio 26 verso, has scrawled illegibly on folio 27 recto and has repeated ‘Donald Johnestone’ on folio 27 verso.

Marginalia relating to the deposition of the manuscript in the Advocates Library is as follows.

Folio 1 recto: ‘London 5th January 1803 / John Mackenzie’; ‘12 / No 12.’ (pencil); the initials ‘J[ohn] C[ampbell]’, ‘D[onald] M[ackintosh]’, ‘D[onald] S[mith]’, ‘L[ewis] G[ordon]’ (i.e. committee members of the Highland Society of Scotland). Folio 30 verso: ‘London 5th January 1803 / John Mackenzie’; ‘13 JMcH’; ‘No 12 Copied in a book [by] the / Rd D[onald] M[ackintosh]’ (i.e. Keeper of Records to the Highland Society of Scotland).

The contents are as follows.

(i) “Ni maoin gan bheith umhal do Chríosd”, 5 quatrains. (1st line illegible but repeated as the saighin.) §5 (beginning ‘Sin agad laoidh na cuig r[ann]’) also appears elsewhere as the beginning of other didactic poems. (Folio 1 recto.)

(ii) ‘Soridh soir go hAlbain uaim’, 9 quatrains. (Folio 1 verso, line 4.)

(iii) ‘A ri an bheatha bi gum leighis’, 3 quatrains. (Folio 2 verso, line 6.)

(iv) “Sé hoidhche dhamhsa san dun”, 5 quatrains. ‘Laoidh do rinne Niall Mor Mac Muiriche san dun do Ruaidhri Mor Mac Leoid’ (margin). (Folio 3 recto, line 1.)

(v) “[Ní hé] mo ghradh amhain acht Dia na ndul”, 1 quatrain. (Folio 3 verso, line 1.)

(vi) ‘Ge hiomdha mart ⁊ molt’, 1 quatrain. (Folio 3 verso, line 5.)

(vii) “D’feruibh Ile nar thoill toighbhem”, 1 quatrain. (Folio 3 verso, line 9.)

(viii) ‘Fir Leoghuis na long dearg’, 1 quatrain. (Folio 3 verso, line 13.)

(ix) “Iocht maith mo-hhenar do ní”, 5 quatrains. (Folio 4 recto, line 1.)

(x) ‘Luaithe cu na cuidecht’, 3 quatrains. DG 76 (Folio 4 verso, line 1.)

(xi) ‘Cethrar tainig anoir’, 5 quatrains. (Folio 4 verso, line 14.)

(xii) ‘Goll mear milenta’, 22 quatrains. (Folio 5 recto, line 15.)

(xiii) ‘Caoin thu fein, a dhuine abhocht’, 8 quatrains. (Folio 6 verso, line 1.)

(xiv) ‘Clann Raghnuill fa Eoin san n-oilen n-aoibhinsi’, 8 lines. On Iain Múideartach, chief of Clanranald 1618-1670. In a darker ink the scribe had subjoined, in imitation of Cathal MacMhuirich’s signature, ‘Cathal Mac Muiridhig cecinit’. (Folio 7 recto, line 14.)

(xv) ‘Gabh a mhic mo mhunadh’, 8 quatrains. (Folio 7 verso, line 4.)

(xvi) ‘Clann an iarrla o iomluibh Bhanbha’, 40 lines. Comparable in metre and subject-matter to crosántacht beginning, ‘Cennus Ghaoidheal do chloinn Colla’, Red Book of Clanranald, page 218. (Folio 8 verso, line 1.)

(xvii) ‘Dia bheatha ar ar los, a leinbh’, 11 quatrains. On birth of heir, circa 1660-1665, to Domhnall, heir to Clanranald. Scribe: Niall MacMhuirich. Headed ‘Niall Mac Muirichig cecinit’ by chief scribe of manuscript. (Folio 9 verso, line 1.)

(xviii) “T’aire riut, a Ghiolla Easbuig”, 12 quatrains. Advice to a poet. Scribe: Niall MacMhuirich. ‘Niall MacMuirichigh cecinit’ added (folio 11 verso margin) by chief scribe of manuscript. (Folio 10 verso, line 8.)

(xix) ‘Ge go ndubhramar go bfuilid cas airidh eile’. cf. MacAingil, “Scáthán Shacramuinte na hAithrithe”, (recent edition) page 80. (Folio 12 recto, line 1.)

(xx) ‘Cionnas mhaires me am aonur’, 28 quatrains. Elegy on Eoin son of Brian MacMhuirich. Two different approximations to Cathal MacMhuirich’s signature are subjoined, on (‘Cathelus Mac Muriche cct’) by the present scribe, the other (‘Cathellus McMurch’) by the chief scribe of the Black Book of Clanranald. (Folio 13 recto, line 1.)

(xxi) ‘Fuarus cara ar sgath na sgoile’, 13 quatrains (12 + 1). To Sir James MacDonald (chief of Sleat 1643-1678). ‘Niall Mac Muirichigh cecinit’. (Folio 16 recto, line 1.)

(xxii) ‘Mor an lensa air aicme Ile’, 17 quatrains. On the passing of the tribes of Islay. ‘Giolla Colluim Mac Ilebhride mhic Phersoin Chille Comain do roin an laoidhsi’ (son of Parson of Kilchoman, Islay, 16th century). (Folio 17 recto, line 15.)

(xxiii) “Mairg do ní uaile as oige”, 9 quatrains. (Folio 19 recto, line 1.)

(xxiv) ‘Cnoc an Air an cnocsa shiar’, 21 quatrains. (Folio 20 recto, line 12.)

(xxv) ‘Se la gus an de’, 18 quatrains. (Folio 22 recto, line 16.)

(xxvi) ‘Mairg duine bhrathis e fein’, 14 quatrains. (Folio 23 recto, line 10.)

(xxvii) ‘Bliaghuin so sholas a dath’, 71¾ quatrains (incomplete). ‘O Dubhagan cecinit’. Entitled by a late hand ‘A Roman Calender in verse’. (Folio 24 verso, line 1.)

(xxviii) ‘Namha an chird nach [caithf] idher’, 8 quatrains. On the demise of poetic learning. (Folio 31 recto, line 1.)

(xxix) ‘Mor an teas ar aire an tsluaigh’, 1¾ quatrains (incomplete). Religious. (Folio 31 verso, line 13.)

(xxx) “A dhuine, cuimhnigh an bás”, 9 quatrains. ‘Ag sin roinn do rinnis do dhuine do chonnairc me ar ti pecadh do dhenamh nach raibhe iomchubhaidh dho peacadh ar bioth do dhenamh’. (Folio 32 recto, line 1.)

(xxxi) ‘Teach Domhnaill an t-iosdagh ge[al]’, 2 lines. Hand unknown. Page largely blank, with some text erased. (Folio 33 recto.)

(xxxii) Folio 33 verso blank.

(xxiii) Two fragments of different folios now mounted together. Verse text discernible on both sides of each, in hand of chief scribe of present manuscript. Also on folio 34b verso, crudely written in Gaelic script, are the letters ‘Aong’, with the end torn off. This continues on folio 1 recto as ‘gus Mc D’, in such a position as to suggest that, at the time the above was written, folio 34b may have been at the top right-hand corner of the front of the manuscript, with folio 34b verso on the outside and the text upside down. Folio 34b recto shows traces of §17 of Cathal MacMhuirish’s poem “Mo-chean do-chonnarc a réir”, on Domhnall Grom Og of Sleat (died 1643), for which see “Éigse”, volume 11, page 4. (Folio 34.)

The manuscripts original former deerskin binding is inserted after the text.