Donn Country : A 300 year legacy
Rob Donn and the Parish of Farr Bettyhill Outside Strathnaver Museum
In addition to the MacKays living in this area during Rob Donn’s lifetime, two of his editors had strong links to Bettyhill and nearby Torrisdale. Hew Morrison (1849-1935), born and raised in Torrisdale, was a schoolteacher, friend of Andrew Carnegie, and chief librarian of Edinburgh Public Library; his 1899 edition of Rob Donn contains 220 Gaelic poems. Historian Ian Grimble (1921-1995) wrote the biography The World of Rob Donn and helped establish the Strathnaver Museum here in the Farr Parish Church in _____. In the words of Grimble’s friend, eminent Gaelic poet and scholar Ruaraidh MacThòmais (Derick Thomson):
Tha fhios gun cuir Rob Donn fàilt’ ort
Ma thachras sibh ann an saoghal eile,
’S bidh sgeulachd no dhà agaibh
Mu Shrath Nabhair ’s Gleanna Gallaidh.
Undoubtedly Rob Donn will welcome you
If you meet in another world,
And you will exchange stories
About Strath Naver and Glen Golly.