In a letter of the Reverend Dr Alexander Robertson Irvine of Blair Atholl (now folios i-ii), to his son, it is pointed out that Irvine got most of the poems from the recitation of John MacDonald of Dalchosnie (1721-1809) during 1800-1804, while he was missionary in Rannoch.

Full information is given in the manuscript on the sources of many of the remaining poems, which were collected in various parts of Perthshire (and in Greenock, in the case of Captain Alexander Morrison), 1801-1808. Further details may be found in Irvine’s hand at Adv.MS.73.2.11, folios 74 verso; 73.2.14, folio 109 and 73.2.15, folios 1, 3.

Basic text on rectos, notes and additions on versos.

The contents are as follows.

(i) Letter of the Reverend Dr Alexander Robertson Irvine, Blair Atholl, 23 January 1867, to his son, Alexander Irvine Robertson. (Incomplete). (Folio i.)

(ii) Contents list. (Folio iv.)

(iii) ‘Ma shealgachan mor a ghlinne’, 110 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 21. (Folio 1.)

(iv) “‘S fada lag mi arsa choir”, 126 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 149. (Folio 6.)

(v) ‘Innis Ullin nam binn ghlor’, 90 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 147. (Folio 11.)

(vi) “Chunncas tighin o’n lear”, 73 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 95. (Folio 15.)

(vii) ‘La dhuinn sealg beinn Aonais’, 82 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 56. (Folio 18.)

(viii) “Latha dhomhsa ‘s do Fhionn fiall”, 141 lines. (Folio 22.)

‘Cath chloinne Baoisge agus Moirne’. Source: Roderick MacLennan, tacksman in Kintail.

(ix) ‘Sgeulachd air Conn mac an Deirg’, 152 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 118. (Folio 28.)

(x) ‘La chaidh fionn a shealg le Fhiannaibh’, 108 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 178. (Folio 35.)

(xi) ‘La gun robh Padric na mhur’, 188 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 103. (Folio 40.)

(xii) “Chuala ‘s cha’n fhada o sin”, 112 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 14. (Folio 48.)

(xiii) ‘Chualas sgeul luanach gun bhreig’, 146 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 204. (Folio 53.)

(xiv) “An glean Sì, san glean ri thaobh”, 131 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 163. (Folio 60.)

(xv) “‘S meamnach tha mise ma Chaoilte”, 160 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 194. (Folio 66.)

(xvi) ‘A Phadric a chanadh na sailm’, 136 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 78. (Folio 73.)

(xvii) ‘Faoin do shuain, oigh na maise’, 331 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 24. (Folio 79.)

(xviii) ‘La dhuinn air tulaich soire’, 113 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 70. (Folio 93.)

(xix) ‘Aithris dhuinn a Phadrig’, 119 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 46. (Folio 98.)

(xx) ‘Labhair Cormac ri Roc’, 132 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 64. (Folio 103.)

(xxi) ‘Elan an uidhir, Leannan sith’, 42 lines + prose. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 196. (Folio 109.)

(xxii) Fionn’s pedigree, by his mother (prose). ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 35. (Folio 112.)

(xxiii) ‘Bheirinn boid ris a chnaimh’, 16 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 167. (Folio 113.)

(xxiv) “‘Se sin Muchtan beag mac Smail”, 46 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 214. (Folio 114.)

(xxv) ‘O thusa fein a shiubhlas shuas’, 38 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 216. (Folio 116.)

(xxvi) “An d’fhag thu gorm astar nan speur”, 11 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 216. (Folio 118.)

(xxvii) ‘Dearg mac Deirg, gur mise bhean’, 28 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 113. (Folio 119.)

(xxviii) ‘Oscar caomh, an treun armach’, 6 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 157. (Folio 121.)

(xxix) ‘Taom a Char amhain, taom do shruth’, 44 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 212. (Folio 122.)

(xxx) “Chunncas tighinn o’n’ Mhuna”, 16 lines. Cf. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 65. (Folio 124.)

(xxxi) ‘Treis air chaithream an fhir mhoir’, 10 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 113. (Folio 125.)

(xxxii) ‘An cual Oisean guth neo-fhaoin’, 181 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 216. (Folio 126.)

(xxxiii) ‘Sguab Garbh na sleibhtean’, 225 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 6. (Folio 134.)

(xxxiv) ‘Rachamaid, deire ro ghille’, 60 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 39. (Folio 144.)

(xxxv) ‘La gun robh Selma air sunnt’, 62 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 40. (Folio 147.)

(xxxvi) ‘An raoir chunncas aisling’, 85 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 201. (Folio 150.)

(xxxvii) [Donald] MacNicol, Arivean, Glenlochay. ‘Chaidh mi turus dheanamh eudaich’, 96 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 201 (printed as two poems). Cf. Adv.MS.72.2.12, page 24. (Folio 154.)

(xxxviii) “Dh’fhalbh iad bha laidir neartmhor”, 8 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 49. (Folio 158.)

(xxxix) “Chunncas uatha ‘sa ghleann”, 96 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 206. (Folio 159.)

(xl) ‘Tur a chuir righ Lochlain fios gu Fionn’, 85 lines + prose. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 85. (Folio 164.)

(xli) ‘Rainig Garbh Dun nam buadh’, 82 lines. ‘Leabhar na Feine’, page 7. (Folio 168.)