Guddling In The Carrying Stream.
Mary Beith
Writer, Researcher and Historian
Mary Beith has made it her life’s work to investigate traditional medical practices in the Highlands and Islands. She has been able to combine rigorous academic work - searching through ancient Gaelic texts - with a lifetime talking to people in island and Highland communities about traditional treatments and cures.
This combination has made it possible for her to compare accounts from the oral tradition with written sources. In her view the oral record has much to recommend it. Accounts in Melness of the medical college located there in the 14th century accord with documents held in the National Library of Scotland. Since these documents were only rediscovered in recent decades it is clear that they have not influenced the local tradition regarding the medical college. Tradition bearers such as the late Joseph Mackay, the late Hugh Macdonald and Alec George Mackay were able to show Mary Beith the sites in West Strathan and Achininver used by the college. They also explained that the college was charged with training surgeons for the Scottish army.
Given her research interests it is very fitting that Mary Beith should be living in Melness. She has lived there for over twenty years and has continued her research and writing. She writes a weekly feature for the West Highland Free Press on the history of traditional medical matters and has also done work on the same subject for radio and television. A second edition of her book ‘Healing Threads’ was published in 2004.
Mary’s work shows us that while it is currently fashionable to seek alternative cures from plants sourced in the Amazon or some other far flung corner of the globe, similar treatments abound closer to home. Modern medical experiments have shown – not surprisingly - that many of these traditional cures have significant scientific merit.