MACNICOL,
the name of a small but ‘broken’ tribe or clan originally belonging
to Ross-shire, but latterly located in the island of Skye. They were
descended from one Mackrycul, (the letter r in the Gaelic
being invariably pronounced like n,) who, as a reward for
having rescued from some Scandinavians a great quantity of cattle
carried off from Sutherland, received from one of the ancient thanes
of that province, the district of Assynt, then a forest belonging to
them. This Mackrycul held that part of the coast of Cogeach, which
is called Ullapoll. In the MS. of 1450, the descent of the clan
Nicail is traced in a direct line from a certain Gregall, plainly
the Krycul here mentioned, who is supposed to have lived in the
twelfth century. This descent is corroborated by the tradition of
the country, as stated in the account of the parish of Assynt in the
New Statistical Account of Scotland (vol. xv. p. 109). He is said to
have been the ancestor, besides the Macnicols, of the Nicols, and
the Nicholsons. When Gregall lived, Sutherland was occupied by
Gaelic tribes, and the Macnicols may therefore be considered of
Gaelic origin.
About the beginning of the 14th century, the family
of the chief ended in an heiress, who married Torquil Macleod, a
younger son of Macleod of Lewis. Macleod obtained a crown charter of
the district of Assynt and other lands in Wester Ross, which had
been the property of the Macnicols. That sept subsequently removed
to the Isle of Skye, and the residence of their head or chief was at
Scoirebreac, on the margin of the loch near Portree. There were
fourteen successive lairds of Assynt of the name of Macleod. The
last of them was the one through whose means the great marquis of
Montrose, when apprehended in Assynt, was delivered up to his
enemies, then at the head of the government in Scotland. Montrose
offered Macleod a large sum of money for his liberty, which he
refused, and the loss of his property, with the ruin of his family,
happening soon after, was deemed by the inhabitants of the district
a just judgment upon him for having been the cause of that
chivalrous nobleman’s capture and execution.
Even after their removal to Skye the Macnicols seem to have
retained their independence, for tradition relates that on one
occasion when the head of this clan, called Macnicol Mor, was
engaged in a warm discussion with Macleod of Rasay, carried on in
the English language, the servant of the latter coming into the
room, imagined they were quarrelling, and drawing his sword mortally
wounded Macnicol. To prevent a feud between the two septs, a council
of chiefs and elders was held to determine in what manner the
Macnicols could be appeased, when, upon some old precedent, it was
agreed that the meanest person in the clan Nicol should behead the
laird of Rasay. The individual of least note among them was one
Lomach, a maker of pannier baskets, and he accordingly cut off the
head of Rasay at Snizort.
At a Highland banquet, towards the end of the last century, a
call was made for the bards to be brought to the upper end of the
room, on which Macnicol of Scoirebreac exclaimed, “The bards are
extinct.” “No,” quickly replied Alastair Buy Mac Ivor, “but those
who delighted to patronize them are gone.”
In Argyleshire there were many Macnicols, but the clan may be
said to have long been extinct.
